Ervin hits 11th-inning walk-off homer vs. Phils

CINCINNATI -- Long after the home team took the lead behind two homers by reliable veterans, and even longer after starting pitcher Sonny Gray had exited the game with another sterling start to add to his resume, the Reds walked off the field jubilant to have outlasted their playoff-contending opponent.

The past two games have featured clutch home runs from several Reds players. On Thursday at Great American Ball Park, it was Phillip Ervin's turn. His solo homer in the 11th inning off Nick Vincent sent the Reds to a 4-3 win over the Phillies, who had to settle for a split after winning the first two of the four-game set.

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"Everybody was hoping that somebody would score a run," Ervin said. "I'm happy that I was the one to do it for the team. I'm happy, everybody's happy. It was a good win."

The ball barely cleared the right field wall, and while it did reach the first row of the seats, it looked like Bryce Harper might have had a chance at a leaping catch. Instead, the ball hit a fan just behind the wall and bounced back onto the field, giving Ervin his sixth homer of the season.

"I was watching, I was hoping," Ervin said. "I saw it go up and [Harper] kind of made me a little nervous. I would have been a little upset about that. Everybody wanted to get out of here. He almost made a good play on it."

From the dugout, Reds players held their breath a bit waiting for the ball to clear the wall. And it did, barely. The ball traveled 353 feet, according to Statcast.

"Me personally, being a pitcher, any fly ball in our stadium, you're like, 'It's got a chance to get out,'" Michael Lorenzen said. "So whenever we hit a fly ball in this stadium, we're jumping up and down saying 'Get out! Get out!' Even though Bryce had a bead on it, there's always a chance for the ball to get out of here. And it ended up going out. We were pretty ecstatic."

Home runs played a big role in the Reds' two wins over the Phillies. Jose Iglesias, whose pinch-hit homer on Wednesday contributed to the Reds’ three-run victory, launched a two-run homer off Phillies starter Jason Vargas in the sixth, putting the Reds ahead, 2-1. Eugenio Suarez, batting for the first time since Sunday, followed with a solo shot off Jared Hughes to give the Reds a two-run advantage.

Suarez's homer was his 41st of the season. He's the first Reds player with more than 40 homers in a season since Adam Dunn hit 46 in 2004.

Apparently, the time off he needed to recover from a bone bruise on his left hand after being plunked by a pitch on Sunday didn't slow him.

"He swung the bat great," manager David Bell said. "In the end, it turned out OK. It didn't hurt him getting a couple days off. It's hard to get him out of the lineup. I know he's very grateful that injury wasn't worse. He looked fresh today and came out and swung the bat really well.

"The same with Iglesias. We've got him at least a few innings off here and he's swinging the bat with authority and getting some big home runs the last couple days."

Gray delivers

In an official capacity, Gray didn't factor into this win. But count this start against the Phillies as another example of why he's been one of the National League's best pitchers this year, especially in the second half.

In 12 starts since the beginning of July, Gray is 6-1 with a 1.44 ERA. Only Jack Flaherty (1.32 ERA) has a better ERA than Gray over that stretch.

Gray was only up to 89 pitches when he was lifted after the sixth inning, but with his spot in the order coming up and the Reds behind 1-0, Bell was looking to generate offense. Though pinch-hitter Nick Senzel didn't do anything in Gray's place -- he popped out in foul territory -- the Reds did score three times in that inning.

"He definitely could have gone back out," Bell said. "He understood too, we're trying to score a run. There was probably one more inning, max, for him to go back out. It's a tough call but when you're down we're going to do everything we can to win games. He understood that."

"I was fine with it," Gray said. "[Bell] said, 'We're going to hit for you here. We're going to score this inning.' Yeah, I understand the circumstances and everything. It was a pretty fun day."