Cardinals Stun Reds, Take Fifth Straight Series
THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Stun Reds, Take Fifth Straight Series
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
CINCINNATI — The St. Louis Cardinals were down to their final strike Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park, one pitch away from a frustrating series-ending loss and another wasted opportunity.
Then the Reds gave them life.
JJ Wetherholt’s fly ball to deep center field was misplayed by Dane Myers, allowing José Fermín and Masyn Winn to score on Cincinnati’s second error of the game, and the Cardinals turned that opening into a six-run ninth inning before holding on for a 10-9 win over the Reds.
The victory gave St. Louis the five-game series and extended the Cardinals’ streak to five straight series wins.
It was not clean. It was not comfortable. It was not the way the Cardinals would have drawn it up after taking an early four-run lead. But in August, with every game carrying weight, style points do not matter nearly as much as finding a way to win.
The Cardinals found one.
St. Louis led 4-0 after three innings behind Jordan Walker, who drove in the first run with a groundout in the first and then launched a three-run homer in the third. Wetherholt and Iván Herrera scored ahead of Walker’s 26th home run, giving Michael McGreevy an early cushion.
For five innings, that looked like enough.
McGreevy kept Cincinnati scoreless through the first five and carried a 4-0 lead into the sixth. The Reds finally broke through after McGreevy left traffic for the bullpen, and the inning changed quickly. JJ Bleday singled in a run against Ryne Stanek, and Matt McLain followed with a grand slam to left field, turning a four-run Cardinals lead into a 5-4 deficit.
From there, the game held until the ninth.
The Cardinals had been quiet since Walker’s home run, but the bottom of the order started the final push. Fermín came off the bench and singled as a pinch hitter. Winn entered as a pinch runner after Bryan Torres was hit by a pitch, and the Cardinals eventually had two runners in scoring position with two outs.
That brought up Wetherholt.
With St. Louis down to its last strike, Wetherholt drove a ball to deep center. Myers could not make the play, and both Fermín and Winn scored as Wetherholt reached second on the error. Instead of a 5-4 loss, the Cardinals had a 6-5 lead.
They did not stop there.
Herrera was walked intentionally, and Alec Burleson followed with a single to right, scoring Wetherholt and moving Herrera to third. Jordan Walker walked to load the bases, and Joshua Báez worked a bases-loaded walk to force in Herrera and push the lead to 8-5.
Fermín then came back to the plate for the second time in the inning and delivered again, driving in two more runs with his second hit of the ninth.
That made it 10-5.
Those two runs turned out to be critical.
Cincinnati answered in the bottom of the ninth and nearly stole the game back, scoring four times before the Cardinals finally secured the last out. What had looked like a comfortable five-run lead became a one-run escape.
But it held.
That is the part that matters.
Walker finished with four RBIs, including the three-run homer that gave the Cardinals their early lead. Fermín came off the bench and went 2-for-2 in the ninth inning, driving in two runs and scoring one. Wetherholt scored three times, including the go-ahead run after his deep fly was misplayed. Herrera reached base twice and scored twice, while Báez drove in a run without needing to swing the bat.
The Cardinals had only eight hits, but they turned Cincinnati’s two errors into six unearned runs in the ninth. They also made the Reds pay for free baserunners, something they had failed to do often enough earlier in the week.
The Reds, to their credit, did not go quietly. McLain drove in four with his grand slam, and Cincinnati made the Cardinals earn every out in the ninth. The final inning was almost a collapse layered on top of a comeback, but St. Louis survived it.
That is sometimes what a late-season race looks like.
Not every win is crisp. Not every win makes sense. Some wins are pulled out of a mess, protected by a thread and carried home because one team kept playing long enough for the other team to make a mistake.
The Cardinals were one strike away from losing.
Instead, they won the game and the series.
They took three of five in Cincinnati, responded after Wednesday night’s one-run loss, and continued a stretch that has kept them in the National League Wild Card conversation. The schedule gave St. Louis an opportunity this week, and the Cardinals did enough to take the series.
Thursday’s win will not go on any teaching tape for clean baseball, but it might go on the list of games that mattered.
Down to their last strike.
A deep fly to center.
A two-run error.
A bases-loaded walk.
A pinch hitter with two hits in the same inning.
A six-run ninth.
A 10-9 win.
And a fifth straight series victory.
That’s a winner.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.
Check out The Cardinal Chronicle for more St. Louis Cardinals coverage, daily farm reports, prospect updates and old-school baseball commentary:
www.cardinalchronicle.com
Photo Credit: JJ Wetherholt, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB