Elly homers in 4th straight game as Reds continue to surge

DETROIT -- When baseball's best team opens the door with shaky defense, you go through it. In the Reds' case on Sunday afternoon, they burst through. Not only did it help them break a season-long curse of no late comeback wins, an 8-4 victory over the Tigers at Comerica Park kept their long-awaited momentum moving.

Cincinnati (37-35) has won seven of its past nine games and three consecutive series. It also completed a 4-2 road trip against Cleveland and Detroit, which owns MLB's best record (46-27). While a third-place club in the National League Central, the Reds remain very much in range for an NL Wild Card spot.

“We all believe -- everyone in this clubhouse," said Gavin Lux, who drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single during the Reds' four-run eighth inning. "We set that expectation in the spring. This team should be in the playoffs. We have all the pieces to do it. So now, we’ve just got to go do it."

With the Reds trailing, 4-2, after reliever Graham Ashcraft allowed two runs in the bottom of the seventh, the eighth opened with TJ Friedl hitting a comebacker to reliever Brant Hurter. The lefty struggled to field the ball and then made a bad underhand toss to first base for an error that allowed Friedl to advance to second base.

“It’s huge. That’s who we are as an offense," Friedl said. "We’re not going to take anything for granted. We’re not going to jog up the line."

Matt McLain followed with a single to right field against righty Will Vest.

Next, Elly De La Cruz hit an RBI single to right field that scored Friedl and made it a one-run game. After Tyler Stephenson struck out, Christian Encarnacion-Strand grounded to third base for what should've been an inning-ending double play. Instead, Zach McKinstry briefly bobbled the ball. De La Cruz beat his throw to second base and Encarnacion-Strand reached first ahead of the throw.

“If he’s 90 percent running, he’s out," manager Terry Francona said. "We’ve talked to them all of the time. You can’t pick your spots when you’re going to hustle. When you do [hustle], you’ve got a chance to win a game because of it.”

Pinch-hitter Will Benson drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to right field that scored McLain. Lux delivered the go-ahead run that brought home De La Cruz. With Santiago Espinal batting, a wild pitch from Vest scored Encarnacion-Strand.

“Our offense does a really good job of feeding off each other. Today is a great example of just keeping the line moving," Friedl said.

To cap off the successful comeback, De La Cruz hit his 16th home run of the season in the ninth, a two-run opposite-field drive that put Cincinnati up by four runs. He joined Eric Davis (1984), Johnny Bench ('70) and Frank Robinson ('59) as the only Reds aged 23 or younger to homer in four consecutive games.

De La Cruz was given a partial rest on Sunday when Francona used him as the designated hitter to keep his hot bat in the lineup. In his past seven games, the Reds' shortstop is batting .414/.469/.897 with four homers and seven RBIs.

“He’s been good," Francona said. "I found out a good way to really piss him off. I told him, ‘I think you’d make a good DH.’ I think I heard some Spanish curse words.”

Late-inning comebacks have been hard to come by for the Reds this season. In fact, they entered the day with an 0-29 record this season when trailing after seven innings. They remain 0-30 when trailing after eight.

"It seems like these last three series, we’ve started to put it together, top to bottom," Lux said. "We’re just having good team at-bats and situational at-bats. That’s a really good team over there with a lot of good arms. To come back late against those guys, and then obviously Elly tacking on another two-pointer there, is huge. Overall, it’s a big confidence boost for our club, and moving forward, I think it helps a lot.”

Said Friedl: "It was a great road trip against two good teams. I think today was just the finishing touches before an off-day. Going down late and battling back and punching right back. It’s who we are as an offense, and today was just a great example of that.”