Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) – Pinch-hitter Chris Heisey’s squeeze bunt single in the ninth inning put the Reds in front and the Reds scored eight times over the final two frames to steal an 11-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Laynce Nix had three RBI and Jay Bruce had four hits, including a solo homer, to pace Cincinnati’s 18-hit attack. Ramon Hernandez went 3-for-4 wit an RBI and scored twice for the Reds, who won their fifth in a row and widened their lead to three games over St. Louis for first place in the NL Central.
Jim Edmonds added a solo homer and scored the go-ahead run for Cincinnati.
Chris Young and Adam LaRoche each clubbed two-run homers for the Diamondbacks, who have lost five of their last six games.
Bruce tripled in Miguel Cairo with one out in the eighth inning, then scored on a Hernandez double. After Paul Janish singled, the Reds got within a run thanks to a poor throw from right fielder Justin Upton. Aaron Heilman relieved Sam Demel and retired Nix on a fly ball to right field. Upton, though, threw very high to home plate as the ball sailed over the head of catcher Miguel Montero. Heilman backed up the play and flipped the ball back to the plate, but Montero couldn’t make the tag in time as Hernandez scored.
Nix went to second on the throw home and then scored on a ground-rule double to left field from Brandon Phillips, tying the game at 7-7.
Arthur Rhodes (4-3) worked around a Gerardo Parra one-out single in the bottom of the eighth, and the Reds went ahead in the ninth with Heilman (3-4) still on the hill. Edmonds doubled, moved to third on a groundout from Scott Rolen and then came in when Heisey executed a perfect bunt toward third base.
“I was a little surprised with the quality of the bunt he put down,” Heilman said. “He’s a fast runner.”
Bruce singled and Hernandez was hit by a pitch before Janish lofted a sacrifice fly to left. Nix followed with a two-run double to cap the scoring.
“I can be critical of myself the way I handled the bullpen tonight,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “I just don’t put it on those guys. As a team, we didn’t stand up to it when it was on the line. I was just as responsible as the rest of the team.”
Phillips scored on a Drew Stubbs sac fly in the first, but Parra’s groundout plated LaRoche in the second.
Edmonds and Bruce homered in the third and fourth, respectively, but Arizona plated four in the fifth, two on Upton’s base hit and the other runs on Young’s 21st homer of the year.
LaRoche’s blast in the seventh widened the Arizona lead to 7-3.
The Reds have won nine of the last 10 meetings…Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez allowed six hits and five runs over 4 2/3 frames, while Rodrigo Lopez yielded eight hits and three runs over five frames for the Diamondbacks…The three-game series wraps up Thursday with Travis Wood (3-1, 2.65 ERA) pitching for the Reds and Joe Saunders (7-12, 4.48) for Arizona…Earlier Wednesday, the D’Backs activated pitcher Juan Gutierrez off the 15-day disabled list and optioned pitcher Rafael Rodriguez to Triple-A Reno. Gutierrez retired Phillips on a fly ball to end the top of the ninth…Reds first baseman Joey Votto was scratched from the lineup due to back tightness.