Votto’s home run carries Reds to third straight victory

The Reds (5-5) reached .500 for the first time in the 60-game season with their third straight victory. They swept a doubleheader Sunday in Detroit.

The Reds trailed 2-0 after two innings. They got on the board with a solo home run by Nick Castellanos in the fourth inning.

Castellanos is hitting .382. He was named National League Player of the Week on Monday. He has a team-best five home runs and 12 RBIs.

Shogo Akiyama led off the sixth with a single. The next batter, Votto, hit a home run to left field. He pointed to the grounds crew, who cheered him with noisemakers Votto bought, as he crossed home plate.

“We’ve all seen Joey do that so many times,” Reds manager David Bell said, “but tonight was a big one for so many reasons.”

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It was the 287th career home run for Votto. He’s tied with Tony Perez for third most in Reds history. He returned from the injured list earlier in the day after missing the doubleheader Sunday with an illness.

Reds starter Sonny Gray allowed one earned run on four hits in six innings. He didn’t allow a run in his last four innings, lowering his season ERA to 0.96. He struck out eight.

“Sonny, early on, was trying to find it,” Bell said. “Sometimes you have starts like that where you’re not on right from the beginning, and you just keep your team right there and that shows a lot of toughness.”

Michael Lorenzen, Nate Jones and Raisel Iglesias each pitched a scoreless inning to close the game. They each struck out two batters.