McCoy: Reds hit season-high 5 home runs to beat Cubs 7-4, remain 2 games back of Mets

But they need help and aren’t getting it.

The Reds stretched out a long extension cord and plugged in the power Friday night — a season’s high five home runs in a 7-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

But the Mets overpowered the meek Washington Nationals, 12-6, to remain two games in front of the Reds.

Reds starter Nick Lodolo couldn’t match Hunter Greene’s complete game shutout Thursday, not even close — 4 2/3 innings, four runs, nine hits and two home runs.

But his teammates covered him, doing it in a manner not characteristic of this team — leaving the yard.

Spencer Steer hit two, Miguel Andujar hit one, Matt McLain hit one. . .and the best news of all, Elly De La Cruz hit one, his first in 43 games.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The Reds broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth when Austin Hayes legged out an infield hit with one out against Cubs relief pitcher Porter Hodge.

Steer then unloaded his second homer, both on two-strike pitches, to make it 6-4 and grab the team home run leadership away from De La Cruz with 20.

That homer lead lasted less than a minute. De La Cruz, the next hitter, lined the first pitch the opposite way into the left field seats for his 20th.

“I told Elly I got to 20 before him,” Steer told reporters after the game.

“That’s OK, I’m proud of Spencer,” said De La Cruz, wearing a broad smile for the first time in a few days.

“It’s nice to see Elly drive a ball the other way and get rewarded for it,” said Francona. “If we can get him hot, boy would that really give us a big lift.”

After his home run, De La Cruz’s dugout reception was like a frat house party.

“That feels really good to hit a home run again,” he said. And of his reception he said, “We’re really close, everybody in the clubhouse is happy for each other. When somebody do good, we all happy.”

De La Cruz insists he has kept a stiff upper lip over his lack of production for more than a month.

“I have to keep my mind strong,” he said. “This game is all about mentality. I just come to the ball park with the same mentality every day. And we gotta keep going, keep winning games and making things happen.”

When Francona was asked about the home run eruption, how to explain it, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know if I can answer that,” he said. “We’re not a team that ordinarily lives with that. But we’ll certainly take it.

“I mean Steer, in a couple of games in the last week, he has kinda put us on his back,” he added.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

After Lodolo was lifted, Connor Phillips, Nick Martinez, Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan stopped the Cubs offense stone cold — no runs, two hits, one walk.

Connor Phillips continues to dazzle with his 100 mile an hour fastball and unhittable sweeper. He followed Lodolo by retiring all four Cubs he faced and was credited with the win. He is 4-0.

“Phillips gave us that inning-and-a-third and he has done a really good job,” said Francona. “Martinez did a good job — that’s a good lineup over there.”

The Reds first three home runs came off Cubs starter Shota Imanaga. They hunted his fastball and all three homers came on his fastball.

Andujar started it with a first-inning home run. But the Cubs tied it, 1-1, in the second on a Dansby Swanson home run. They took a 2-1 lead in the third on Ian Happ’s run-scoring double.

Matt McLain, enmeshed in a 2-for-21 slump, tied it in the third with his home run. But the Cubs forged a 4-2 lead in the fourth. Pete Crowe-Armstrong beat a two-out infield single and number nine hitter Matt Shaw, a rookie, homered.

Steer’s fourth-inning homer pulled the Reds to within 4-3 and the Reds tied it with two outs in the fifth. Ke’Bryan Hayes walked and took second on Hodge’s wild pickoff throw and he scored on TJ Friedl’s single.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Then came the seventh and the back-to-back homers by Steer and De La Cruz.

Steer has been in-and-out of the lineup with a variety of injuries, plus the arrival of rookie Sal Stewart. So how has he kept his playing sanity?

“I just try to go out there and compete and try to be a tough out,” he said. “Good things happen when you stick to your approach and keep it simple up there. That’s what I try to do.

“You play to win and individual accomplishments take care of themselves,” he added. “I just try to help the team win and make a positive impact, try to be myself.”

With the Reds down two games with eight to play, Steer said, “We’re going to fight to the last game and give everything we’ve got. This is what it’s all about, a chance to go to the playoffs. We got a shot. We’re in this thing. If we play hard, good things happen.”

But the Reds ask, “Can anybody out there beat the Mets?”

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