CINCINNATI -- For the entirety of the 2019 season to this point -- whether their offense was sputtering or in a groove -- the Reds have been waiting for Jesse Winker and Yasiel Puig to catch fire at the plate. Perhaps Sunday was the day both started putting it all together.

If so, it would be coming at a very good time for them and the club.

During an 11-3 Reds rout of the Rangers at Great American Ball Park, Winker notched career highs with four hits and five RBIs, including a two-run home run during a four-run fourth inning. Puig reached base four times and joined Winker with his own two-run homer in the fourth.

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“Big day for Wink. I thought the two-run homer was really the big hit in the game,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Just overall, really good at-bats. Yasiel has been hitting the ball hard. It’s nice to get a couple that he didn’t hit quite as hard and get a little bit of luck and add that to the balls he’s hitting hard. That can really turn into something. It’d be great to get him going and feeling good.”

The game raised Winker’s average from .230 to a slash line of .244/.320/.454 with a career-high 11 home runs.

When Winker connected on a 2-1 changeup from Rangers starter Ariel Jurado and cleared the left-field fence, it was his first homer since May 18. He went a season-high 20 games and 65 at-bats without one.

“I felt like I saw every one of his pitches,” said Winker, who also hit a double and two singles to fall a triple shy of the cycle. “I felt like I saw them all pretty well. You’re just battling. I wanted to drive those guys in. I take a lot of pride in that. I want to be the guy who can drive in runs and help this team with that. It was nice that the ball fell. I felt good about that swing.”

Puig’s first two singles came on fortunate breaks. His hit in the second inning bounced off the bag at first base. In the third, he hit a squib to the left side.

“I did open the way for guys to get some nice hits and my teammates said, ‘You’re going to hit them all like that? Hit something hard,’” Puig said.

Puig delivered something much harder in the fourth when he crushed a first-pitch homer to left field, his 13th of the season. Now batting .231 with a .696 OPS, he has started to come on with hits in eight of nine games, with a .351 average over the span.

Most of Puig’s recent hits have been singles, but he slugged a homer in Saturday’s 4-3 loss and just missed a second long ball that was caught in the eighth inning. It would’ve delivered the tying run.

“Some line drives and fly balls were caught by the other team, but if I stay hitting like that and make good contact, the hits will come at some point,” Puig said.

Winker and Puig could use more success to make tough lineup decisions even tougher for Bell once Scooter Gennett rejoins the lineup. Gennett starts a rehab assignment on Monday and will be the regular second baseman upon his return. That means Derek Dietrich will need a place to play. Dietrich has been a breakout star at second base, but he can also play corner outfield.

Cincinnati avoided a three-game sweep by the Rangers and will try to keep the offense rolling into a very tough next series. The Astros will be in town for three games and have Wade Miley, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole as their starting pitchers.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to come together,” said Reds starter Sonny Gray, who pitched five innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits and one walk, with eight strikeouts. “We’ve got a tough stretch coming up here. We’ve got to string together some quality baseball. We really needed to win a game like this. Everyone can go home and enjoy their families and come back tomorrow with the same intensity, same fire and put together some quality baseball these next 10 days.”

The Reds -- the National League Central’s fifth-place team most of the season -- haven’t won more than two games in a row since taking three straight May 9-11. Following the Astros, they play first-place division-rival Milwaukee at Miller Park, followed by the Angels, Cubs and the Brewers again at home.

“We’ve lost a lot of games by one run [15], because the offense is not right there in the time we need it with people on base,” Puig said. “We know we’re in last place and so close to the other teams. We’re going to fight until the end of the season. We’ll see what’s going on in September, because it’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.”