Cincinnati Reds keep playoff hopes alive with big win over St. Louis Cardinals

ST. LOUIS — Whether it turns out to be more inspiration or more of a swan song, the Cincinnati Reds opened their last-chance series of the season by pummeling the Cardinals in St. Louis with a season-high outburst to keep their flicking playoff hopes alive for at least one more day.

“Still fighting,” TJ Friedl said. “That’s been our M.O. all year.”

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The Reds batted around twice, hit a season-high six home runs and scored more runs than they had in a game since May of last year to beat the Cards 19-2 in the opener of a must-sweep three-game series to close the season.

Six days after blowing a 9-0 lead at home, they left no room for chance in this one, scoring three in the first, four in the second and then responding to Cards’ two-run third with seven in the fourth.

“We’ve got to win out, bottom line,” said Jonathan India, whose two-run homer in the second made it 5-0. “We’ve got to win every game. I’m glad we won big tonight, but we have to do the same thing tomorrow."

India said when the Reds began to open up the big early lead, Saturday's collapse against the Pittsburgh Pirates crossed his mind.

"I was, like, 'I think we need to score some more here,' " he said.

They still need a heavy dose of help to make the playoffs after the Miami Marlins came from behind to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.

Four teams entered the day in play for the final two playoff spots in the National League, with the Reds trailing both the Marlins and Chicago Cubs for the final spot.

The Reds need to win their final two games in St. Louis and then need at least the Marlins or the Diamondbacks to lose their remaining games to make the six-team NL field.

“For us it was never a rebuild year or, like, ‘Hey, let’s take steps in the right direction and kind of move forward,’ “ Friedl said. “It was, ‘No, we’re going to get into a playoff spot. That’s the goal, from the beginning.

“And so here we are, (two) games to go with a chance to do it.”

After Wednesday night's loss to the Cleveland Guardians, the Reds flip-flopped the first two pitchers in their rotation for this series, moving left-hander Brandon Williamson into the opener and pushing back Connor Phillips (who debuted this month) to Saturday.

Williamson pitched what turned out to be an under-the-radar six strong innings on a day he told manager David Bell he planned to pitch nine to save the bullpen.

"I wanted to. I would have," said Williamson, who handed off a 14-2 lead to rookie Carson Spiers, who finished it to earn a three-inning save, which, in turn, meant the rest of the bullpen goes into Saturday's must-win game on two full days' rest.

Nick Martini, India, Spencer Steer, Noelvi Marte, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Tyler Stephenson all homered in this one as the Reds racked up 11 extra-base hits among their 18 hits overall.

"It was exactly what we needed in a lot of ways," Bell said of the big start and smooth pitching performances. "We know we have to win. And to get off to a start like we did, I thought it was really important. We know where we are.

"Brandon Williamson came out, and I thought his first few innings were very similar to when he was pitching great in the middle of the season."

The last time the Reds had six different players hit home runs — July 10, 2008, against the Cubs — the cast included the guy who sat as Martini DH’d (Joey Votto), a guy who has since been elected to the Hall of Fame (Ken Griffey Jr.) and the guy now managing the Cubs (David Ross).

Adam Dunn, Edwin Encarnacion and Brandon Phillips also homered for the Reds in that one.

The Reds clinched a winning season after losing 100 games last year.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds MLB playoff hopes alive with win over Cardinals