Long wait:

Going into this CINCINNATI — past offseason, one clearly stated goal of the Reds baseball management general

— manager Dick Williams and manager Bryan Price was

— upgrading the team’s bench.

While it might be too early to say “mission accomplished,” the team obviously is on the right track.

No example is stronger than Patrick Kivlehan’s pinch-hit, three-run tying home run in the seventh inning of Cincinnati’s 6-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, but this year’s bench — primarily Kivlehan, Arismendy Alcantara and Scooter Gennett — has been showing its merits all season.

Going into Thursday’s fourgame series finale against St. Louis, the switch-hitting Alcantara ranked fourth in the major leagues with six pinch- hits and had appeared at as many positions, missing only first base, pitcher and — so far — catcher.

Kivlehan had logged a team-leading 25 pinch-hit at-bats and appeared at both corner infield positions and first base.

Gennett, acquired off waiv- ers from Milwaukee late in spring training, had made 22 starts at four positions, including designated hitter, and had appeared at second and third base and both cor- ner outfield spots. His start at third Thursday was his fifth straight appearance in Price’s starting lineup, his 10th in the last 14 games and his 23rd of the season.

Versatility is one of the qualities of this season’s bench appreciated most by Price. When catcher Tucker Barnhart isn’t starting, Price has two switch-hitters to deploy.

“We have a very athletic bench,” Price pointed out. “We’ve got left-handers, right-handers and switch-hit- ters.”

Going into Thursday’s game, the Reds were tied with three other National League teams with three pinch-hit home runs, tied for fourth with eight runs scored by pinch-hitters, fifth with 13 pinch-hit runs batted in and eighth with 17 pinch hits. Last season, the Reds didn’t have a pinch-hit home run and finished last in pinchhit runs and RBIs and 11th in pinch-hits, but Price prized his bench corps for more than just the ability to produce at a moment’s notice.

Gennett went into Thursday’s game hitting .300, while Alcantara was batting a respectable .243 and Kivlehan just .220, but Kivlehan was hitting .281 as a starter while Gennett was a solid .326. Alcantara was hitting .174 as a starter.

“I’m comfortable, if there’s an injury, sticking them into the lineup to play on a regular basis,” he said.

The left-handed hitting Gennett, who set one sin- gle-game franchise record with four home runs and tied another with 10 RBIs on Tuesday, started Thursday at third base in place of Eugenio Suarez and went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Alcantara lined out to center field as an eighth-inning pinch-hitter.

Price started Gennett to give him a few more at-bats before what was shaping up to be an extended time on the bench.

“We’re probably going to face three left-handed starters in (the next series at Los Angeles), so I’ll be going with more heavily right-handed lineups and it made sense to me to get Scooter another game in there, since he’ll probably have fewer oppor- tunities in the L.A. series,” Price said.

Right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani, who hasn’t pitched all sea- son while dealing with a par- tially sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, isn’t likely to be ready to start for the Reds until at least August, Price said.

“(DeSclafani) is behind,” Price said. “He initiated another throwing program that will take him close to the time that Homer (Bailey) and (Brandon) Finnegan might be ready — that last week or week-and-a-half of June. I wouldn’t anticipate (see- ing him with the Reds) until probably around August.”

Bailey, who had arthroscopic surgery in February to remove bone spurs from his right elbow, is beginning a rehab assignment today with a start for Double-A Pensacola. Finnegan, out since mid-April with a strained shoulder muscle, is scheduled to throw a bullpen session with the Blue Wahoos on Sunday. past four starts.

“Obviously, it’s phenomenal,” manager Bryan Price said. “(Leake) was really on. He pitched well and he pitched well with runners on base, and Feldman was up to the task. That was an all-around great ballgame and a great series.

“Feldman was down with his fastball and had two dif- ferent angles on his breaking ball. He had good action, but the key is getting ahead in the count and commanding good pitches.”

Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, capping the effort with a crowd-satisfying three- pitch swinging strikeout of longtime Reds nemesis Yadier Molina.

Joey Votto went 4 for 4 and broke the game open with a two-run homer in the sixth as the Reds ended up outscoring St. Louis in the series by a combined 28-9, but Votto wasn’t ready to say this Cincinnati offense was more potent than others to which he’s contributed.

“It’s early,” he said. “We’ve had some good stretches, and this is one of them.”

“With our offense, we know that if we can keep the team in the game, we have a chance to win,” Feldman said. “It’s important to limit damage and give the team a chance. The name of the game is to get the guys back in the dugout and swinging the bats.”

The Reds kept putting runners on base against Leake — two two-out singles in the first, one two-out single in the second, two two-out singles in the third and loading the bases with nobody out in the fourth — but couldn’t break through until the fifth.

Votto singled with one out, his third single in three at-bats, and scored from first on Adam Duvall’s third hit in three at-bats, a double to left-center field.

“I’ll have to talk to Duvall about that,” Votto joked. “Get him to hit a home run next time so I can jog around the bases.”

After Scott Schebler was hit by a pitch, Scooter Gennett delivered a run-scoring single to right field with Schebler going to third. He scored when Molina’s throw to second trying to catch the stealing Gennett sailed into center field for an error.

Leake (5-5) now has allowed 11 earned runs in 18⅔ innings over his last three games after giving up 13 through his first nine starts. He allowed 10 hits — including three by Duvall, the player for whom he was traded to the Giants by the Reds and who has hits in six straight plate appearances against Leake — and three total runs with two walks and five strikeouts.

Leake is 0-4 in seven career starts against the Reds, and Cincinnati has won all seven games.

“I thought I had pretty decent stuff,” Leake said. “They were putting the ball in play, finding some holes here and there. Being able to make a pitch when I needed to was big today.”

The Reds made it 5-0 against left-handed reliever Tyler Lyons in the sixth when Zack Cozart reached on an infield hit and Votto slammed his 16th homer into the right field seats.

“Joey Votto is something else,” Feldman said. “I get a big kick out of watching his approach at the plate. You have to see him every day to appreciate how good he is. When he’s hot, there’s nobody better.”

Cozart’s hit behind second base easily could have been scored as a throwing error on second baseman Paul DeJong. It extended Cozart’s career-high streak of consecutive games reaching base at least once to 30, one short of the longest by a Reds shortstop (Barry Larkin, 31 in 1991).

Matt Carpenter helped St. Louis avoid a shutout with an opposite-field, two-run homer off of Austin Brice with two outs in the eighth, his second homer in two games and 12th of his career against Cincinnati.