CINCINNATI — For seven innings, the Detroit Tigers failed to advance a runner into scoring position against Cincinnati Reds right-hander Hunter Greene, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft who has a 3.45 ERA in 18 starts in his third MLB season.

Despite a Tiger reaching safely in five of Greene's seven scoreless innings, nobody moved up to second base.

Everything changed in the eighth inning.

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The Tigers battled from behind for Saturday's 5-3 win over the Reds in the second of three games in the series at Great American Ball Park, sparked by Parker Meadows' double off right-handed reliever Fernando Cruz in the eighth inning.

It turned into a five-run inning.

With the win, the Tigers (41-48) have two consecutive games for the first time since the beginning of June, when they won three in a row from June 2-4. The Tigers went more than a month without back-to-back wins.

A Tiger reached second base for the first time Saturday when Meadows — in his second game since getting called up from Triple-A Toledo — lined Cruz's splitter into the right-field corner with one out in the eighth.

Once that happened, manager A.J. Hinch juggled his pinch-hitters. Zach McKinstry stood in the on-deck circle while Meadows was at the plate, but when Meadows doubled, Wenceel Pérez grabbed a bat and walked to the batter's box.

The decision from Hinch paid off.

Pérez, a switch-hitter batting from the left side, crushed a middle-middle cutter from Cruz for a two-run home run — his second homer in his past four games and his fifth homer in 69 games this season — to tie the game, 2-2.

The homer from Pérez traveled 411 feet to right-center.

The next two batters worked walks to keep the pressure on: Matt Vierling walked on six pitches against Cruz; pinch-hitter Andy Ibáñez walked on seven pitches against left-handed reliever Sam Moll.

Then, slumping veteran Mark Canha flared a fastball down the first-base line and past the first baseman. On the play, Vierling scored standing up from second for a 3-2 lead as the ball rolled slowly into foul territory in shallow right field, allowing Canha to reach second.

The Tigers increased their lead to 4-2 on Riley Greene's groundout that was misplayed by the Reds.

The Reds swapped Moll, a lefty reliever, for right-handed reliever Lucas Sims after Greene's groundout, but Carson Kelly greeted Sims with an RBI double to left-center field for a 5-2 advantage.

Ahead by three runs, right-handed reliever Shelby Miller completed a scoreless eighth inning (after a scoreless seventh inning) in a much-needed bounce-back performance.

Right-handed reliever Jason Foley, who threw 24 pitches in Friday's win, surrendered a a leadoff solo home run to Spencer Steer in the bottom of the ninth inning, making it 5-3. Foley responded with back-to-back outs before a two-out single from Noelvi Marte to keep the game alive.

After 10 pitches, Hinch replaced Foley with left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin for a matchup with left-handed pinch-hitter Edwin Rios, but the Reds immediately swapped Rios for right-handed pitch-hitter Santiago Espinal.

Chafin struck out Espinal to end the game.

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Hunter Greene dazzles

The Tigers nearly advanced a runner to second base against Greene in the third inning, but Meadows was thrown out by Stephenson trying to steal.

Before that, though, Meadows refused to chase Greene's first-pitch slider below the zone, then ripped a second-pitch 97 mph fastball to right field for a leadoff single.

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It was another positive sign in his return from the Triple-A level, considering the Tigers sent him down to get on time for fastballs. He has three hits — including two on fastballs — in his two games since getting called up.

Facing Greene, the Tigers collected three singles and two walks with seven strikeouts. Greene retired all three batters in the first and seventh innings, but he had to work with one runner on base in each of his other five innings.

Greene threw 104 pitches, using 60 fastballs, 38 sliders and six splitters. He generated 15 whiffs on 49 swings — a 30.6% whiff rate — with seven fastballs and eight sliders.

Bullpen-only

The Reds cashed in from one big hit with a runner in scoring position. Right-handed reliever Beau Brieske gave up a two-run double — a consequence of back-to-back walks — in the fifth inning.

Right-handed reliever Alex Faedo started Saturday's bullpen-only game and completed two innings with two strikeouts on 25 pitches, including a swinging strikeout of Elly De La Cruz in the first inning with a pair of sliders.

Brieske, who replaced Faedo, retired six batters in a row with four strikeouts on 23 pitches in the third and fourth innings. He then walked back-to-back batters on 12 pitches to open the fifth inning, issuing free passes to Spencer Steer and Nick Martini.

Tyler Stephenson made Brieske pay for the walks with a two-run double for a 2-0 lead.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers blast Cincinnati Reds for 5 runs in 8th for 5-3 victory