McCoy: Reds beat Cubs 6-3, move to within one game of the Mets in NL wild card race

And the Reds opened it as wide as possible and Mr. Opportunity walked right in.

Earlier in the afternoon, the New York Mets lost to the Washington Nationals, 5-3, in 11 innings.

And there was the opportunity — a win Saturday night against the Chicago Cubs would move the Reds to within one game of the Mets for the final wild card spot.

So they responded with a 6-3 victory, their fourth straight win and fifth in six games and the pressure certainly has to be felt all the way to New York.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

After hitting five home runs Friday night, the usually soft-hitting Reds added three more Saturday — Spencer Steer for the third time in two days, TJ Friedl and Tyler Stephenson.

But the Man of The Night had to be relief pitcher Tony Santillan, a man with a heart of stone and a fastball that is as heavy as a boulder. He is seductive, productive and destructive.

The Reds clutched tightly to a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning. Chase Burns pitched a 1-2-2 seventh, but encountered problems in the eighth.

He gave up back-to-back doubles to open the eighth and it was 4-3. When he gave up an infield single that put runners on third and first with one out, the bullpen gate swung open.

It was Santillan time, the 73rd time he has trudged to the mound, many in high-leverage situations, but none higher than this one with what was at stake.

The first thing he did was strike out Reds’ assassin Ian Happ, owner of 32 career home runs against the Reds. Then Moises Ballesteros chopped a slow roller just to the left of the pitcher’s mound.

Shortstop Elly De La Cruz, owner of the most errors in MLB, made a long sprint, grabbed the ball and threw a lightning bolt to nip Ballesteros, ending the inning and preventing the tying run from scoring from third.

Still, 4-3 was a nerve-wracker.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Noelvi Marte singled to open the eighth and De La Cruz struck out. Before Stephenson left the dugout to hit, he asked manager Tito Francona, “Do you want me to bunt?

“No, I want you to hit it into the third row,” Francona told reporters after the game. “I think he hit it into the third row. He’s very coachable.”

That gave the Reds a three-run lead rather than a one-run lead and Emilio Pagan closed it off with his 29th save.

To show the camaraderie of this team, fellow catcher Jose Trevino made a pre-game prediction about what catcher Stephenson was going to do.

“Trevino called that home run at about 3 o’clock this afternoon,” said Pagan. “He said, ‘I think Stephenson is going to hit a big two-run homer today. Sure enough, he spoke it into existence.”

The game was like a Pier 6 brawl, both teams throwing haymakers.

The Cubs struck first and struck again against Reds starter Zack Littell. Michael Busch homered in the third for a 1-0 Cubs lead.

The Reds scored two in the bottom of the third with a couple of big hits by Matt McLain and Friedl.

But No. 9 hitter Reese McGuire tied in the fourth with a home run, the 37th given up this season by Littell.

Those, though, were two of just three hits Little gave up for his five innings and Steer homered in the bottom of the fifth for a 3-2 lead, Littell was the winning pitcher.

Amazingly, in his previous eight starts Littlell had seven no-decisions and one win. Now he has two wins in that span and is 10-8 on the season.

Friedl’s home run in the seventh made it 4-2 and the Reds tightly grasped that lead.

“My job, obviously, was to strand those guys in a one-run ball game,” said Santillan. “My job was to make sure that runner on third doesn’t score.

“In that moment, trying to get those outs, I was relaxed,” he added. “I’ve done it before and obviously I know how. The moment was big so you compose yourself and make it as slow as possible internally. Externally I wanted to be as aggressive as possible and believe I can do it, because I’ve done it.”

Many times.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

“These guys believe in me that I can do it, so I do it for the team and I always have it in my mind that I can do this,” he said.

And where the Reds are, there is no bigger moment, up to this point.

“It means a lot, obviously,” said Santillan. “I have had times where I’ve come in and given up somebody else’s runs and that hurts. But today, because of the magnitude of the game, getting us closer felt really good.”

Stephenson displayed a lot of emotion circling the bases after his homer and said, “I was just kinda blacking out. Big moment. A lot of emotions, a lot screaming. But you get to a point where you get light-headed from screaming, so I told myself to stop.”

But he kept running, quietly, until he touched home plate with one of the biggest runs, one of the biggest home runs, so far this season.

And while they are at it, the Reds might send a thank you note and a bouquet of roses to Washington’s Daylen Lile. His inside-the-park home run in the 11th beat the Mets.

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