Ross homers twice as Reds top Fish

MIAMI -- Like a college student that suddenly realized it was finals week and needed a good grade to pass the class, the once-slumping Reds are cramming as many wins as they can into their season's final days.

Sure, a miracle is needed for Cincinnati to graduate to the postseason. Tuesday's 5-3 win over the Marlins gave them four wins in the last five games, and suddenly, a playoff berth seems teasingly within reach again.

That's because the first-place Cardinals (80-76) lost their seventh straight game, which inched the Reds (78-79) to 2 1/2 games back in the National League Central standings with five games left to play. They sit one game behind the surging second-place Astros (79-78), who won their seventh in a row.

Gathered around televisions in the Reds clubhouse, players gasped as the Padres scored four seventh-inning runs and took a lead from the Cardinals. The magic number to clinch for freefalling St. Louis remained fixed at five.

"It's definitely not too late right now," said center fielder Chris Denorfia, who had a career-high four hits against Florida. "It's making it interesting."

Withered by injuries to key players, including two-thirds of their outfield, the Reds are counting on an unusual cast of characters to get to the end. Besides Denorfia, fellow rookie outfielder Norris Hopper added three hits.

"We're doing everything we can to battle and stay alive here," Reds manager Jerry Narron said. "We're using everybody we've got."

David Ross was responsible for the game's first run in the second inning with the first of his two home runs to the left-field upper deck off Marlins starter Dontrelle Willis (12-12). In the third inning, with two outs, Ross added a 427-foot blast for a two-run homer and a 4-0 Reds lead. It was the career-high 21st homer of the season for the Cincinnati catcher.

Ross entered the night in a 1-for-16 skid and had been stuck on 19 homers for the season since Sept. 15.

"It has been a while. I got that monkey off my back," Ross said. "I think that No. 19 was in my nightmare. It was hard to get over that number. I felt like I was never going to get a hit again."

The Reds were also resourceful. Besides Ross' power, the club played small ball and used four sacrifice bunts to create chances.

In the second inning, Hopper bunted for a single and advanced on a Matt Belisle sacrifice, which led to Denorfia's RBI single. A Denorfia sacrifice in the sixth moved pinch-runner Brandon Harris into scoring position before Royce Clayton hit an RBI double.

"It was great to see guys do something to manufacture some hits, manufacture some runs," Narron said. "We got our bunts down tonight and we executed real well."

"We've definitely been struggling a bit to put up some runs on the board," Denorfia said. "It's a great way to get it done."

Filling a vacant fifth spot in the rotation, Belisle made his first start of the season after he worked his previous 28 games in a relief role. Belisle allowed one earned run over 3 2/3 innings and came out when he threw 77 pitches and reached his pitch-count limit.

A Willis RBI single in the fourth inning forced Belisle from the game. The right-hander gave up three hits and five walks but made the pitches when he had to. Ryan Franklin (6-7) followed with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and was awarded the win.

"I thought Matt Belisle gave us everything he had," Narron said. "I would have liked to see him throw more strikes than he threw. But he kept the ball down and when he was missing, he was missing down. For a guy who hasn't started all year, we'll definitely take it."

"I felt pretty good," Belisle said. "I was just throwing a lot of balls. I usually don't do that."

In the sixth, Reds reliever Gary Majewski gave up three hits and a run but was picked up when Todd Coffey notched the inning's final two outs and cleaned up the mess.

David Weathers worked a scoreless seventh, but ran into trouble with two outs in the eighth. After back-to-back hits put runners on the corners, Weathers got out of it, but not before his fielding error on Dan Uggla's hard grounder to the mound scored another run.

Scott Schoeneweis worked the ninth and earned his third save while eliminating Florida from the postseason.

Had the Reds not gone 10-19 since Aug. 25, they wouldn't be in desperation mode. But long shot or not, they can at least say they're alive for a while longer.

"It's still there," Belisle said. "We just play day by day. It's a little cliché, but we're definitely watching it. We're not out of it."