CINCINNATI – Juan Cruz scattered four hits over six shutout innings for the second straight outstanding performance by an Arizona starting pitcher and Orlando Hudson hit his first National League home run to lead the Diamondbacks to a 7-0 win over the slumping Cincinnati Reds.

Hudson, in his first season with Arizona after four with Toronto, had three hits as the Diamondbacks earned their seventh win in their last eight games. His three-run home run in the eighth inning sealed the victory.

Cruz (2-3) followed Brandon Webb’s complete-game 3-0 win in Friday’s series opener by striking out five and walking two to earn his first win in his last four starts. He had been 0-3 since beating Chicago 6-0 on May 4.

Luis Vizcaino, Brandon Lyon and Jorge Julio combined for three innings of shutout relief to extend the Reds’ streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 21 over the last three games. Cincinnati is a combined 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series.

Reds starter Aaron Harang (5-4) fell to 0-3 over his last four starts since winning 5-1 at Colorado on May 4. The right-hander went seven innings, giving up four runs – two earned – on eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.

Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on Craig Counsell’s leadoff double and Eric Byrnes’ single to center.

The Diamondbacks went up 2-0 in the fifth after Adam Dunn dropped Hudson’s one-out fly ball for a two-base error, and Chris Snyder lined a single to right to score Hudson.

Eric Byrnes led off the sixth with a walk and, one out later, stole second and moved to third on catcher Jason LaRue’s throwing error. Byrnes couldn’t score on Luis Gonzalez’s soft chopper in front of the plate, but Shawn Green came up with a run-scoring infield single to second.

Counsell drove in Hudson with a blooper to left in the seventh.

Notes: Hudson looked to have his sixth stolen base of the season for Arizona until he was ruled out when plate umpire Charlie Reliford called interference on Snyder, who stepped in front of LaRue while striking out in the third inning. … Byrnes and Counsell each had a stolen base to tie Hudson for Arizona’s team lead with five each. … The Reds went into the game tied with Milwaukee for the most errors in the major leagues with 43. They committed two errors. … The Reds have lost two of their last three series at home after winning four of their first five and splitting the other. … Gonzalez’s eighth-inning double was the 511th of his career, tying him with former teammate and current Arizona television broadcaster Mark Grace for 36th place.

AP-ES-05-27-06 2100EDT