CINCINNATI -- Bryce Harper touched first base, turned and waved into the visitors’ dugout. The Phillies in the dugout waved for the ball.

Harper had ripped a 1-0 fastball into right field in the fifth inning of Tuesday's 6-2 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park. The base hit scored a run, and the run represented Harper’s 100th RBI of the season. While RBIs might not be as highly regarded anymore, they still matter to the players who play the game. Reaching 100 RBIs is a milestone, which made the baseball a keepsake.

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“RBIs come with a good team,” Harper said. “Getting on base and things like that. It’s Sept. 3, so we’ve got a long way to go. It’s just a stepping stone to something else hopefully. We’ve just got to keep going.”

Harper’s hit helped the Phillies improve to 72-65, keeping them 2 1/2 games behind the Cubs for the second National League Wild Card spot with 25 games to play. Philadelphia had been six games over .500 11 times since mid-June, but it has failed to win the next game each time.

The Phils finally won Tuesday to push them seven games over .500 for the first time since June 16.

“It is nice to get over that hump,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. “I will also say that on a night when Harper drove in his 100th run, everybody contributed, and I think that’s really important. It was a real team victory on a night when he had a personal accolade.”

Harper, who hit his 30th home run of the season in Monday’s series-opening victory, is the first Phillies player to have 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season since Ryan Howard had 33 homers and 116 RBIs in 2011. Harper is the first Phils outfielder to hit those marks since Pat Burrell had 32 homers and 117 RBIs in '05.

Harper (26 years old), Howard (26) in 2006, Burrell (25) in '02 and Scott Rolen (23) in 1998 are the only Phillies players since '78 to reach the 30-100 mark before their age-27 seasons.

“I’ll say this, 30 and 100 is a huge accomplishment,” Kapler said. “As a kid, it’s what every hitter dreams about. Can I get to 30 and 100? Bryce seems to do it fairly regularly, and regardless of how much it means to him, I think it means a lot to his teammates.”

Harper, who has hit that mark for a second consecutive season, is batting .256 with 30 home runs, 100 RBIs and an .872 OPS. He has hit .268 with 14 homers, 38 RBIs and a .974 OPS in 182 plate appearances since July 14, a good bit of momentum heading into the final weeks of the season. Harper entered the night 34th out of 142 qualified players with a 3.7 WAR, according to FanGraphs. He ranks in the top 50 in metrics like wOBA (37th, .364) and wRC+ (43rd, 124), as well as in traditional statistics like home runs (29th), RBIs (12th) and on-base percentage (29th, .370). He is 54th in slugging percentage (.502).

“I feel pretty good right now,” Harper said. “I’ve just got to keep going. It’s a big month for us. As one of the guys on this team, I’ve got to come up, I’ve got to produce and just be Bryce.”

The rest of the team needs to play well, too. The offense continued to score runs. Six players knocked in a run, including Scott Kingery, who hit a solo homer in the ninth. Vince Velasquez allowed one run in three innings, but the Phillies pinch-hit for him with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth. Six Philadelphia relievers (Nick Vincent, Ranger Suarez, Mike Morin, Jose Alvarez, Blake Parker and Hector Neris) combined to yield only two hits, one run and one walk in six innings. They struck out nine.

The Phillies figure to play more games like this one in September, with 11 pitchers in the bullpen.

“We have to go to the store,” Neris joked, when asked if there are enough seats in the bullpen for everybody.

Harper might need more shelf space. He picked up another baseball for his collection.

Of course, there are bigger and better things to be won this month.

“That’s what September baseball is,” Harper said. “The weather changes, the leaves change, things like that. Good baseball ahead of us. We’ve got some good teams we’re going to play down the stretch. Hopefully tomorrow and the next day, we can take care of business. We’ve got [Trevor] Bauer and [Sonny] Gray the next two days, so it’s going to be tough. We’ve got to take care of business. We’ve got to scratch and claw, and see what we can do, and go into New York and hopefully get the job done.”