ST. LOUIS (AP) — Andrew Abbott retired the final 18 batters he faced in seven commanding innings, and the Cincinnati Reds avoided a three-game sweep with a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.
Jose Trevino, Jake Fraley and Elly de la Cruz each doubled and scored, and Matt McLain hit his ninth home run for the Reds.
The Cardinals had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Trevino doubled and scored on Fraley’s liner to the right-center field gap that put the Reds ahead 2-1 in the fifth. After a passed ball, Fraley scored on TJ Friedl’s sacrifice fly.
Cincinnati extended the lead when de la Cruz doubled to lead off the sixth and scored on Gavin Lux’s RBI groundout.
Abbott (7-1) allowed only three singles, including Yohel Pozo’s RBI single in the second inning. The Cardinals didn’t have another base runner until Taylor Rogers issued a one-out walk to Jose Barrero in the eighth.
Abbott had three strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 1.79. Jake Fraley had 10 putouts in right field on fly balls.
Emilio Pagán worked a spotless ninth for his 18th save in 21 chances.
Miles Mikolas (4-5) allowed three runs, two earned, in five innings for St. Louis. He struck out six and walked one.
McLain put Cincinnati up 1-0 on a 387-foot home run into the right-field bullpen in the first inning.
St. Louis responded with a run in the second on three straight grounders to the right side — singles by Nolan Arenado and Pozo sandwiched around a fielding error by McLain on Thomas Saggese’s grounder to second.
After Pozo’s single tied the game and put runners on first and second with no outs, Abbott struck out Jordan Walker to start his run of dominance. He got Barrero to foul out and Brendan Donovan to fly out to end the threat.
The Reds have not been swept in any of their first 25 series this season. It’s their longest streak to start a season since 1989 (30 consecutive series).
The Cardinals host the Cubs on Monday night the first meeting of the division rivals this season, with St. Louis LHP Matthew Liberatore (4-6, 4.08 ERA) set to start.
RHP Nick Lodolo (5-5, 3.71) is set to start the Reds’ series opener Monday against the New York Yankees at Great American Ball Park.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Emilio Pagan (15) and catcher Jose Trevino celebrate a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in a baseball game Sunday, June 22, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz, right, and Matt McLain (9) celebrate a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in a baseball game Sunday, June 22, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Andrew Abbott throws during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, June 22, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.
The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.
Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.
“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.
Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.
Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.
She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.
The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.
The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.
Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.
“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”
Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.
The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.
That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.
For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.
Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.
"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”
An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
