Big seventh inning rallies Reds to victory

CINCINNATI — Scooter Gennett didn't have any more homers in that tan bat. Instead, another Cincinnati utility player hit the ball a long way and decided a game.

St. Louis kept Gennett in check a day after his fourhomer game, but Patrick Kivlehan had a pinch- hit three- run shot that sparked the Cincinnati Reds to a 6-4 victory Wednesday night, extending the Cardinals' longest losing streak in four years.

The Cardinals have dropped six in a row, their deepest slump since they lost seven straight in July 2013.

They let a 4- 1 lead slip away when Kivlehan, another utility player like Gennett, and Joey Votto homered during a five-run seventh inning.

"Before the inning, I was thinking that it had been a while since I'd gotten to pinch hit and I decided that if I was sent up there, I wasn't going to take any swings in the ( batting) cage," said Kivlehan, the Reds' leading pinch- hitter. "I was just going to grab a bat and go up there."

Kivlehan's first career pinch- hit homer off Brett Cecil ( 0- 2) tied it 4- 4. Votto's two-run homer off Trevor Rosenthal finished the eight- batter rally that put the Reds in position for their 13th comeback win of the season.

"Sometimes you're amazed that it's happening," manager Bryan Price said. "I never get tired of it."

Gennett became the first Reds player to homer four times in a game during the 13-1 win a night earlier. He connected in his last four at- bats and had a chance for more history on Wednesday: Nobody has homered in five straight plate appearances.

Using the same tan bat that produced five hits overall Tuesday, Gennett grounded into a double play his first time up against Lance Lynn, ending his homer streak. He also struck out, hit into another double play and singled as part of the Reds' goahead rally.

Scott Schebler had a homer among his three hits for the Reds, who have won all three games in a series that ends this afternoon.

Wandy Peralta ( 3- 1) got the win in relief of Bronson Arroyo. Raisel Iglesias pitched the ninth, staying perfect in 11 save chances.