McCoy: Suarez, Castellanos lift Reds over Royals

TWO: Come back and capture the lead.

FOUR: Turn it over to the bullpen so it can wrap a pretty ribbon around another victory.

They used that same scenario for the fifth straight game Monday night in Kauffman Stadium and scored their fifth straight victory, 6-2, over the Kansas City Royals.

This time, they spotted the Royals a 2-1 lead after six innings. Then they scored four runs in the seventh on only two hits.

Of his team’s newly found penchant for coming from behind, manager David Bell said, “I would say there is growing confidence that we can come back and win games. It’s not easy, but the way our guys are swinging the bats, you don’t ever feel you’re out of a game. You should always feel that way, but when it starts happening it gives you a lot of confidence. No matter what’s happening, you have a chance to win the game.”

Both hits in the seventh inning landed on the Kansas-Missouri state line — home runs by Nick Castellanos and Eugenio Suarez.

Castellanos tied the game, 2-2, and Suarez blasted a three-run game-decider. Suarez has been productive after Bell sat him down for two games last week to observe and recharge.

“I just changed my mentality,” said Suarez. “I know I can do it. I know I have to deliver, for sure, I had to be more aggressive and see the ball better and longer. I know I have a good swing and can do it.

“Those two days off let me see the game in a different way,” he said. “That was the first time that happened in my career (a benching). I thought I just have to do it better, do your best.

Suarez said his home run swing was perfection personified.

“That was my best swing, that’s my swing,” he said. “He hung that breaking ball in the middle and I was so ready for it,” said Suarez. “I put my best swing on that. I haven’t felt that way in a long time, but definitely that was my best swing this year. May feel like, ‘You still have it.’”

Bell said he noticed an immediate improvement on Suarez’s first swing after his two-day timeout seat in the dugout.

“I saw it on his first at bat when he came back,” said Bell. “He looked a little different, when he was at the plate he was in a better position to hit. I do believe he made a small adjustment and it put him in position to hit. He is taking good swings and the best is yet to come.”

All-Star Castellanos, a.k.a. Mr. Prime Time, picked on the first pitch of the seventh and drove it into the left field seats. That tied it, 2-2.

Kansas City starter Mike Minor became unglued after the Castellanos home run and walked both Tyler Stephenson and Joey Votto.

Royals manager Mike Matheny yanked Minor and it was a major mistake. The first batter he faced, Suarez, crushed a 431-foot no-doubt-about-it three-run homer for a 5-2 lead.

The Reds padded the lead in the ninth, scoring a sixth run on a triple by Aristides Aquino and a single by Tyler Naquin,

It was all the Reds needed to apply the 22nd loss in 26 games on the Royals. And with Milwaukee’s loss to the New York Mets, the second-place Reds pulled with six games of first place.

Vladimir Gutierrez started for the Reds and held the Royals to two runs and five hits over six innings.

He left after six innings, down 2-1, but confident his team would do what it did.

“I knew that the team would be able to rally, especially the way we’re playing right now,” said Gutierrez. “I knew they would be able to rally for me.”

And the bullpen preserved his fourth victory with three more scoreless innings from Ryan Hendrix, Josh Osich and Sean Doolittle. That stretched the Reds’ belligerent and bullish bullpen scoreless streak to 16 1/3 innings.