Kivlehan launched a pinch-hit three-run home run with one out in the seventh inning, and Joey Votto followed later with a go-ahead two-run shot off of former St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal as the Reds came from behind for a 6-4 win Wednesday night.
Coming from behind is becoming commonplace for the Reds. This was their 13th comeback win.
“Sometimes, you’re amazed that it’s happening,” manager Bryan Price said. “I never get tired of it.”
Scott Schebler and Gennett singled to lead off the seventh against Brett Cecil (0-2) and, one out later, Kivlehan – pinch-hitting for winning pitcher Wandy Peralta (3-1) – hit his fourth home run of the season and first pinch-hit homer of his career to wipe out a 4-1 St. Louis lead.
Kivlehan was 3-for-20 with zero runs batted in as a pinch-hitter this season going into that at-bat.
“Before the inning, I was thinking that it had been a while since I’d gotten a pinch hit and I decided that, if I was sent up there, I wasn’t going to take any swings in the cage,” he said. “I was just going to grab a bat and go up there.”
“He has a lot of power,” Price said. “He didn’t try to do too much. He just put together a good at-bat.”
Zack Cozart knocked Cecil out of the game with a line-hugging sharp grounder that became a ground-rule double when fielded by the left-field ball boy.
Votto went the other way with Rosenthal's first pitch, driving it into the left field seats for his 15th homer of the season.
Cozart now has reached base at least once in 29 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the majors and the longest of his career.
Scooter Gennett, playing second base and batting seventh the night after hitting four home runs in his last four at-bats, grounded into a double play in his first at bat. The major-league record for home runs in consecutive at bats remains stuck at four.
The Reds have strung together as many as three wins for the first time since winning five straight from May 3-7. The Cardinals extended their season-high losing streak to six games.
Bronson Arroyo, who was 0-6 with a 6.34 earned-run average in his last nine starts against St. Louis, saw his ERA stay the same as the span lengthened to 10. The Cardinals reached Arroyo for eight hits and four runs with two walks and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Matt Carpenter, batting leadoff for the first time this season as St. Louis manager Mike Matheny tried to stir the slumping Cardinals, sparked a third-inning two-out rally with his 10th homer. Arroyo walked Tommy Pham, who scored on Stephen Piscotty's double into the left-field corner. Piscotty scored on Jedd Gyorko's single to left-center field for a 3-0 St. Louis lead.
The Reds didn’t get a hit off of Lance Lynn until Votto’s one-out sharp bouncer up the middle that Lynn knocked down but couldn’t corral.
Schebler, who remained tied for the league lead in home runs with 16 despite not logging an at bat in three days, hit Lynn’s first pitch of the fifth inning into the right-field seats. Schebler finished 3-for-3 with a walk in his first start since leaving Saturday’s game with a shoulder injury he suffered while making a diving catch.
The Cardinals got that run back in the sixth on Aledmys Diaz’s one-out single, Eric Fryer’s two-out single and pinch-hitter Dexter Fowler’s double over center fielder Billy Hamilton’s head as the first batter to face Peralta.
Fryer was thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on the hit, a call confirmed by video review after a Matheny challenge based on the catcher collision rule.
About the Author