High-flying Allen keeps Tribe rolling into break

CINCINNATI -- It didn’t take long for Greg Allen to make an impact in his third stint this season with the Indians.

One day after being recalled from Triple-A Columbus, Allen started in center field, and after making a spectacular diving catch in the second inning, he collected a career-high four hits, including a triple and a home run in an 11-1 victory over the Reds on Sunday at Great American Ball Park.

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“He sure impacted the game, made a great catch, four hits, my goodness,” said Indians manager Terry Francona. “It was great to see. Nice for the whole organization.”

In the second, Reds shortstop Jose Iglesias sent a long drive to left-center. Allen tracked it and went airborne to make a beautiful back-handed catch before landing against the fence in front of the visitors’ bullpen.

“It wasn’t a bad start to the day,” Allen said, of his catch. “I tried to reach up last minute and make a play. I knew I was getting close [to the wall], but my first priority was to try to make the play. You just try to step up and produce when you have the opportunity.”

Jake Bauers added a two-run home run, and Tyler Naquin and Jason Kipnis each added solo shots in the rout.

The Tribe heads into the All-Star break on a six-game winning streak, a season-high for the club and the longest active streak in the Majors.

Progressive Field will host the All-Star Game this week, and after the break the Tribe will welcome the first-place Twins for an AL Central showdown.

“I want them to get away from the game [during the break], but I also want them to be ready when we come back,” Francona said. “We need to play our best baseball moving forward. Every game means so much.”

Trevor Bauer, who is 4-0 with a 2.90 ERA in his last six starts, allowed a run and four hits through seven innings on Sunday.

“He battled his rear-end off,” said Francona. “For four hits, it seemed like there was some traffic out there. He allowed us to add on a little bit.”

Bauer earned the Frank Robinson Most Outstanding Player honor for the Indians-Reds series, going 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in two starts. He also collected his second career hit on Sunday.

Despite the solid line, Bauer still had to work out of jams in the first, fifth and sixth innings.

“A hit by pitch, three walks, a lot of leadoff hits puts you behind the eight-ball,” Bauer said. “I was able to work out of it, and obviously my teammates came through.”

After failing to cash in on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the third, Naquin took Tyler Mahle deep to put the Tribe ahead 1-0 with his seventh homer of the season.

Bauers made the score 4-0 in the fifth with his 11th home run, a two-run blast off Jared Hughes that caromed off the batter’s eye in center.

Allen belted his second homer of the season during a six-run eighth to blow open the game. It was his first home run against an NL opponent. He added his team-leading third triple of the season and fell a double shy of the cycle.

Kipnis’ seventh homer of 2019 was among eight hits for the Tribe in the eighth. Both homers came off Reds rookie Jimmy Herget, who was making his Major League debut.

The Tribe tied a season high with 18 hits on Sunday.

“That’s how you want to finish the half, for sure,” Bauer said. “We have a big series coming out of the break, too. We need to keep that momentum going.”