Adrian’s 1-2-3 punch sets up Giant bout

CINCINNATI — If the Dodgers’ bats came alive in Sunday’s win, they were downright perky on Monday. With seven home runs, including four slugged during the top of the fifth inning, Los Angeles took a wild 18-9 victory over the Reds to gain a split of their four-game series.

Adrian Gonzalez did the most damage with three homers and a career-high eight RBIs, including a three-run shot in the first inning, a solo homer in the six-run fifth and another three-run homer in the seventh. The win helped inch the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West standings to one game over the idle Giants ahead of the rivals’ three-game series that opens on Tuesday.

“There was a lot of good things,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously, Adrian had a career day and Chase [Utley], Corey [Seager], guys were on base all game and to see that these guys didn’t let up and continue to put together at-bats, run the bases, hit some balls out of the ballpark, very excited for our offense.”

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The Dodgers are the second team this season to hit seven homers in a game. The last team do it was the White Sox, who launched seven in a 10-8 loss to the Blue Jays on June 25.

“The majority of the days you feel really good, as some of my games have shown. And then some days it’s just not there for no rhyme or reason that I’m aware of,” said Reds starter Homer Bailey, who was tagged for six earned runs and nine hits over 2 1/3 innings in his fifth start back from Tommy John surgery.

The Dodgers jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third inning against Bailey. But Cincinnati — aided by Joey Votto’s three-RBI day where he was a homer away from the cycle — worked its way back. Its three runs in the third inning cut Scott Kazmir’s day short and added another run in the fourth inning to make it a 6-5 game.

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In the top of the fifth, the Dodgers’ offense erupted and blew the game open against reliever Josh Smith. Rookies Andrew Toles hit a two-run homer and Rob Segedin made it back-to-back long balls — both the first of their careers — and Seager added a two-run shot. With Smith out, Gonzalez smoked a first-pitch homer against Jumbo Diaz to reopen a large gap that the Reds could not close a second time. Gonzalez’s third homer came in the seventh against Blake Wood to make it an eight-run game.

It was the fourth time in the history of Great American Ball Park that there was a seven-homer game, but it was the first time it was done by the visiting team. The seven homers given up also tied a record for Reds pitchers that was most recently achieved this season on May 31 at Colorado. It was the first time the Dodgers hit that many since Sept. 18, 2006, vs. the Padres. The 18 runs and 21 hits were season highs for Dodgers hitters …

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