CINCINNATI (Interstat) — Spencer Steer homered for the fourth consecutive game and the surging Cincinnati Reds tightened the National League wild-card race with a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds (79-76) won their fourth straight and pulled within one game of the New York Mets for the final playoff spot, a day after the Mets lost to Washington. Cincinnati owns the tiebreaker should the teams finish the season with identical records.

TJ Friedl and Tyler Stephenson also homered for the Reds, who have taken the first three games of this pivotal four-game set against the Cubs.

Chicago (88-67), which has already clinched a postseason berth and holds the top wild-card position, lost its third straight and saw its lead for that spot shrink.

The game was a back-and-forth affair until the late innings. Chicago struck first when Michael Busch launched a solo home run, his 30th of the season, off Reds starter Zack Littell in the top of the third inning.

Cincinnati answered immediately in the bottom half against Cubs starter Javier Assad. Matt McLain and TJ Friedl opened the frame with back-to-back singles. Steer then grounded into a fielder’s choice, allowing McLain to score. Two batters later, Will Benson singled sharply to center to plate Friedl and tie the game at 2-2.

The exchange of runs continued in the fifth. Chicago catcher Reese McGuire put the Cubs back ahead with a solo shot to right field, his ninth of the year. But Steer responded in the bottom of the inning, crushing a towering solo home run to left-center off reliever Drew Pomeranz to even the score again at 3-3. It was Steer’s 21st homer of the season.

The deadlock was broken in the seventh. Friedl led off the inning by turning on a pitch from Aaron Civale, driving it over the right-field wall for his 13th homer to give Cincinnati a 4-3 lead.

Chicago threatened to tie it in the eighth. Willi Castro hit a ground-rule double and scored on a line-drive double by McGuire, his second RBI hit of the game. The Cubs then put the go-ahead run on third base with one out, but reliever Tony Santillan struck out Ian Happ and Graham Ashcraft induced a soft groundout from Moisés Ballesteros to escape the jam.

The Reds provided crucial insurance in the bottom of the eighth. After a single by Noelvi Marte, Stephenson connected for a two-run homer to right field off Pomeranz, sealing the victory with his 12th of the year.

Zack Littell earned the win for Cincinnati, improving to 10-8. He worked five innings, allowing three hits and two runs while striking out four. The Reds’ bullpen, featuring Santillan, Ashcraft and Emilio Pagán, combined for four innings of one-run relief. Pagán worked a scoreless ninth for his 29th save.

Pomeranz took the loss for Chicago, falling to 2-2 after surrendering three runs on two hits in one inning of work. Assad had a solid start for the Cubs, giving up two runs on three hits over four innings.

The announced attendance was 31,756 and the game took 2 hours, 28 minutes to complete.

The series concludes Sunday. The Reds will look to complete a four-game sweep, which would vault them into a potential tie for the final wild-card spot, while the Cubs will aim to halt their skid before returning home to face the Mets.