CINCINNATI -- After losing 10 of 11 games, Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price was looking for more fight from his club. He got it on Friday night.

Joey Votto and Todd Frazier homered and rookie Anthony DeSclafani pitched six solid innings to lift the Reds to a 5-2 victory over the Washington Nationals at Great American Ball Park.

"It's hard to talk about silver linings after losses," Price said. "We talk a lot about that in the minor leagues. We fought back tonight. That was great to see."

Friday wasn't a positive news day for Washington.

It began with confirmed reports that left fielder Jayson Werth would be out indefinitely with a fractured wrist.

Then, in the second inning of Friday night's game, right-hander Stephen Strasburg left with neck stiffness after just 16 pitches.

Strasburg was replaced by right-hander Taylor Jordan (0-1), who allowed three runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings.

"It's pretty stiff," Strasburg said. "I don't know why. I felt fine in the first inning. Once I sat down before the second, it kind of tightened up a little bit. It was hard for me to turn my head to the left."

Manager Matt Williams said Strasburg would be evaluated again Saturday to determine treatment options.

Things got tense in the top of the seventh when Bryce Harper, who went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to five games, took exception to being struck in the back by a Tony Cingrani pitch.

Harper emphatically tossed his bat and shin guard before walking to first base before briefly exchanging words with both Cingrani and Votto.

"He should've jogged," Cingrani said, after Friday's game. "Be a baseball player. Sorry I hit you, now run."

Cingrani worked himself into a major jam in the eighth when he issued three walks to load the bases. But, reliever J.J. Hoover fanned Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond to end the threat.

"Until he proved he was on my heater, I wasn't going to give in," Hoover said.

Aroldis Chapman notched his eighth save to preserve the win for DeSclafani (3-4), who allowed two runs and eight hits in six innings for Cincinnati (20-27).

"He's tough as nails," Price said of DeSclafani. "He grinded his way through it."

The Reds were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position when center fielder Billy Hamilton's RBI bloop single put them ahead 3-2 in the sixth.

"The blooper over second base was not a bad pitch," Jordan said. "I just got unlucky out there."

Shortstop Zack Cozart, who went 3-for-5, drove home Hamilton for Cincinnati's fourth run.

"We came out today on the attack offensively," Cozart said. "It was a good day for us."

Frazier's 15th homer of the season, on an 0-1 pitch from Blake Treinen, made the score 5-2 in the seventh.

DeSclafani, one of three rookies to start for Cincinnati in the weekend series, worked out of a first-and-third jam in the first, striking out Harper and getting first baseman Ryan Zimmerman to fly to center.

Votto put the Reds ahead 1-0 with his eighth home run of the season, a blast to center on a 2-2 pitch from Strasburg.

After walking Reds catcher Brayan Pena to begin the second, Strasburg visited with the training staff and Williams on the mound. Moments later, he walked into the dugout.

Strasburg threw eight of his 16 pitches for strikes before being replaced by Jordan.

DeSclafani retired 10 of 12 after his shaky start.

Small ball helped the Nationals tie the score 1-1 in the fifth.

Washington loaded the bases on Jordan's perfectly placed sacrifice bunt with one out.

The tying run scored from third when Desmond's dribbler down the third-base line resulted in an infield hit.

NOTES: Nationals SS Ian Desmond extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a first-inning single. ... Nationals mana