CINCINNATI — Bob Melvin laid out two imperatives in recent days.

The Giants needed to start picking up streaks, and they needed to do it on the road, as this was the fifth-worst baseball game by any team this season.

They met both requirements on Sunday afternoon with an 8-2 win over the Reds.

Robbie Ray had nine strikeouts in five innings and limited the Reds to two consecutive solo home runs, while the Giants got all the runs San Francisco needed to secure a win in the series finale with home runs by Matt Chapman, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Tyler Fitzgerald.

“It’s good to win the first series of the second half on the road,” Melvin said afterward. “We now have a four-game series (against the Nationals), which is a little tougher to win, but we’re off to a good start and we know we’re going to have to play a lot better on the road if we want to get where we want to go.”

The Giants improved to 10-1 after hitting at least three home runs the night before, their first loss in a game.

The Giants (56-57), who took two of three games, earned their first series win away from Oracle Park since this time last month and have opened a gap at the bottom of the National League wild card race. They now lead the Reds (53-58) by two games but are four games behind in a playoff berth.

“Every game counts. If we keep winning series, we’ll be in a good spot at the end of the year,” said Chapman, who led the team with his 17th home run of the year, matching his home run total from last season in 30 fewer games. “To win this series, go into tomorrow with some momentum and start the series off the right way. It’s going to be a battle all the way for us.”

The score was tied 2–2 when Wade came to bat against Cincinnati starter Carson Spiers in the sixth inning, and an inning later the Giants had a one-run lead they would not relinquish. Wade hit a knee-high sinker high enough but hard enough to clear the right field wall — 107.7 mph off the bat.

It was such a close call that Melvin wasn’t sure if he would make it out.

“I didn’t think so at first,” he said. “But this is a good place to hit.”

The home run was Wade’s fourth of the season and first since July 2, a 19-game drought. It was one of 11 home runs he’s hit with a launch angle of 17 degrees or less in the majors this season, and along with his 50-degree blast in May, it gave him the Giants’ highest home run in the Statcast era and their lowest since 2015.

“He looks like he’s got a little more power in his legs,” Melvin said of Wade, who finished with three hits. “(He’s) going to start dribbling a little bit.”

Chapman’s two-run homer that tied the score in the fourth was no wall-scraper, leaving his bat at 109.1 mph and traveling about 421 feet, straight to center.

It was Chapman’s second home run in two games and his third of the series — if you count his Little League home run on Friday (a double and two errors in the scorebook). Chapman has a . 357 (15-41) batting average, four home runs, four doubles, eight RBIs, 10 runs scored and seven walks in 11 games since July 24.

Fitzgerald’s 11th home run of the season and 10th in his last 16 games extended the lead in the eighth inning, putting Wade in after the game’s second inning. Michael Conforto doubled two more and then switched with Jerar Encarnacion to turn the inning into a five-run homer, more than they had combined in their previous four games.

“We opened up with what was a really close game for a while,” Melvin said. “But Wade’s home run was a big one.”

Ray, who had lowered his ERA to 4.40 in three starts since returning from Tommy John surgery, was dominant in the second inning, striking out two batters (actually two). After Stuart Fairchild grounded out to bat for the second out, Jeimer Candelario connected on an 0-1 heater to open a 1-0 lead, and Santiago Espinal sent the next pitch (another fastball) into the seats to make it 2-0.

“I felt like I was pitching pretty well, even with the two home runs,” Ray said. “I feel like everything’s starting to come together. The walks were down today. My command was better. My last start (allowing three home runs) was more of a learning start, how to pitch in a way that I didn’t feel good about and was struggling a little bit with my delivery.

“I felt really good today. … I threw a couple really good curveballs. Good sliders. Good fastballs. Guys are going to hit home runs, even pitches that are thrown exactly where you want to hit them, so just being able to refocus, get back in the zone and not shy away from contact was the biggest thing.”

The Reds put only two runners on base against Ray and left men on third base on three separate hits, including two by Elly De La Cruz.

In the third, De La Cruz reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third when Curt Casali’s throw on a stolen base attempt sailed toward center field and was stranded there when Ty France bounced to Wade at first base. In the sixth, TJ Friedl represented the tying run when he hit a slow roller toward Chapman.

Similar to the game-saving play he made in New York earlier this season, Chapman charged the ball, hit it barehanded and hit a sidearm shot to first base just in time to end the inning. While the stakes weren’t as high (in the sixth inning rather than the ninth), the difficulty level could have been higher. Melvin noted that it was a somewhat awkward backhanded hit.

“It was slow, but I knew it was a life-or-death game,” Chapman said. “I was just trying to get it. Once I caught it, I just grabbed it tight. I knew it was spinning, so I just tried to spin it. Once I caught it, I threw it as hard as I could from there.”

Espinal, who used his dynamic speed to reach third in the fifth inning, gained two more bases after the opening hit.