Cincinnati Reds win back-to-back games for first time since…

By Brandon Shrider | Jul 6, 2016

May 2, 2016; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart reacts after striking out during the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports /

The Cincinnati Reds have been mired in a 5-15 slump over the past 20 games. They have not won back-to-back games in that span and have won just one road series all season. That changed in the seventh inning on Wednesday.

The Cincinnati Reds hadn’t won back-to-back games since June 13 and 14 against the similarly terrible Atlanta Braves (…the Reds went on to lose the last two games of the series for a 2-2 split) and their only road-series win of the year came almost two weeks prior to that when they took 3 of 4 from the Colorado Rockies.

That all ended Wednesday. And in a much more impressive fashion.

Cincinnati, after losing the first game of the series, rallied for back-to-back wins over the daunting Chicago Cubs — on the road — including Wednesday’s 5-3 win.

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Barnhart plays hero

Trailing 3-1 heading into the seventh inning, Tucker Barnhart, with one out, blasted a 2-2 pitch from Trevor Cahill for a 3-run home run to catapult the Reds into a 4-3 lead. Barnhart was hitless in the series coming into the finale (after collecting seven hits in the 3-game series against the Nationals prior) before smashing just one — but the most important one — for a Reds win.

Barnhart did leave two other runners on base and struck out once in Wednesday’s game. Now his season average sits at .264 and he has three home runs and 18 RBIs.

He has 16 hits in his last 14 games played and went in hitless in just three games in that span.

Cozart states his late All-Star case

After being snubbed from this season’s All-Star Game despite having the league’s eighth highest dWAR by a shortstop, Cozart put his offense on display in Wednesday’s win over the Cubs (wow, that feels good to say.)

He went 2 for 5 including a leadoff homer on a full count in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead. He raised his average to .271 and now has 14 HR and 38 RBIs.

NOTE: Only one of the seven shortstops with a higher dWAR than Cozart has both more home runs and a higher batting average, the Dodgers’ Corey Seager. The Indians’ — in the American League — Francisco Lindor has a higher batting average but less home runs.

Cozart also has nine DRS, fourth most by a shortstop this season, and has more home runs than each of the three ahead of him.

Bullpen doesn’t blow it!

After six solid innings from starter Anthony DeSclafani, who allowed eight hits and three runs, Michael Lorenzen (two innings) and Tony Cingrani (one) didn’t allow hit over the game’s final three innings to the best offense in baseball. The duo combined to strike out three, walk two as Lorenzen notched his first hold of the year and Cingrani reached the 10-save mark.

This outing marked back-to-back games where the Reds bullpen did not allow a run.

Next: Reds promote bullpen coach

Others of note:

Brandon Phillips raises his season average to .255 after going 3 for 4. He was 1 for 8 in the series coming into Wednesday
Jose Peraza drew the start in left field and went 2 for 4
The heart of the Reds’ order 2-5 (Billy Hamilton, Joey Votto, Adam Duvall, Eugenio Suarez) combined to go 0 for 14 with six strikeouts

The Reds have a day off on Thursday before starting a 3-game series with the Miami Marlins before the All-Star break.