CINCINNATI -- Scanning Sonny Gray's pitching line for the Reds against the Marlins on Friday, it would appear at first glance like it was an easy night for the right-hander. Gray gave up only one hit over seven scoreless innings and had four baserunners all evening during a 5-3 victory at Great American Ball Park.

"Maybe as good as he’s been all year," said Reds manager David Bell, whose club closed the night tied with the Padres for the second National League Wild Card spot. "He was in complete command."

Gray was aggressive with first-pitch strikes thrown to 20 of his 25 batters. He was efficient as well, needing just 26 pitches through his three perfect innings. He retired his first 10 batters in a row.

But Gray had to dig deep during his one bumpy inning and escaped a bases-loaded jam that could have changed the whole game in the top of the fourth.

Gray put his curveball on the backburner for this start and leaned on his other pitches. That included a slider that he shelved in his most recent starts as he continued to work on it. Against Miami, he threw the slider 21 times. According to Statcast, it got 12 swings and eight misses.

That slider would be his friend in the pivotal fourth inning.

"Sonny, in the best way possible, you don’t know what you’re going to get from one day to the next when it comes to pitching as far as what kind of breaking ball he’s going to have," catcher Tucker Barnhart said. "Tonight, there was a clear effort to throw a little bit more of a true slider/cutter early and try to induce some weak contact. He did a great job. It’s been awesome."

As Cincinnati took a quick 2-0 first-inning lead on a Nick Castellanos RBI single and Kyle Farmer's sacrifice fly, Gray was shoving against Miami's hitters. Had it not been for Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s line-drive single to right field with one out in the fourth inning, Gray might have flirted closer to a no-hitter. Things nearly went sideways though when he walked the next two batters.

Gray buckled down and got Brian Anderson to hit a first-pitch cutter to center field. Chisholm tagged up and prepared to bolt for home, but center fielder Tyler Naquin threw a perfect strike to the plate and it forced the runner to hold up.

In a three-pitch sequence, Gray struck out Lewis Brinson with an 81-mph slider to escape the jam. But it was the pitch to Anderson that Gray was most pleased with.

"That’s kind of like a new-ish pitch, something that I’ve been kind of working on, and I threw it with conviction and I got a shallow pop fly," Gray said. "And then the Brinson at-bat, I think it was back to the old slider after that one.

“It definitely gave me a little kick because -- let’s call a spade a spade -- those were the type of innings and those were the type of things that happened to me the last two, three outings, where it’s just kind of gone haywire. It’s been the fourth, the fifth innings, and it’s just kind of got away from me there."

Gray finished the game by retiring 11 of his last 12 batters, with only a catcher's interference call against Barnhart with two outs in the sixth inning putting another man on base. He finished with two walks and five strikeouts while throwing 87 pitches before Bell went to the bullpen.

"Just kind of based on where he is, the game. Seven innings is an outstanding start," Bell said. "We have a long way to go. We want to keep him strong and able to build off that start there."

Gray hadn't reached seven innings in each of his previous six starts since July 7, and was 2-2 with a 7.22 ERA in those games. He needed a night like Friday.

"It meant something to go back out there and have a pretty clean seventh, with the potential of maybe next time or this time getting myself ready to go out there for an eighth or something," Gray said. "Am I satisfied? Absolutely not."

Cincinnati grew its lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning. Naquin hit a drive to right field for his 16th homer of the season -- a solo shot against Elieser Hernandez.

The Marlins pitcher plunked his next batter, Castellanos, before a quirky feat. On the next offering, Joey Votto crushed a two-run homer to right-center field. It was the fourth time in a row that Votto homered after Castellanos was hit by a pitch.

"I don’t really know what to make of it," Bell said. "I don’t want to make too big a deal out of it. It is a close team. Guys are really close. I think it’s a great way to respond."

It was Votto's 28th homer of the season overall and his Major League-leading 17th in 33 games since the All-Star break.

Chisholm not only broke up a perfect game but also foiled a combined shutout bid. In the eighth inning vs. Reds reliever Lucas Sims, he hit a three-run homer to right field. Mychal Givens worked a scoreless ninth inning for his fourth save.

"Sonny keeps a good pace, and he just goes out there and pounds the strike zone, and gets outs," Naquin said. "It’s nice to be able to give him a little bit of a cushion, because he’s just going to get quicker and get better as the game goes on."