Cardinals Waste Dustin May’s Strong Start, Fall to Reds 4-2

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Waste Dustin May’s Strong Start, Fall to Reds 4-2
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals had the pitching.

They did not have enough offense.

That has become a familiar and frustrating sentence.

Dustin May gave the Cardinals six innings of one-run baseball Friday night at Busch Stadium, striking out eight and handing St. Louis a late lead. Blaze Jordan delivered the one swing the Cardinals needed in the fifth inning, a two-run double that briefly put St. Louis in front.

Then the lead disappeared.

The Cincinnati Reds scored twice in the seventh on Eugenio Suárez’s two-run homer, added an insurance run in the ninth, and beat the Cardinals 4-2 in the opener of the weekend series.

It was another winnable game that got away.

It was also another night when the Cardinals’ offense gave their pitching staff almost no room to breathe.

St. Louis finished with two runs on two hits.

Two.

That is hard to survive against anyone. It is even harder to survive against a division opponent when the starter gives you the kind of outing that should be good enough to win.

May was more than good enough.

He worked six innings, allowing one run on seven hits, walking one and striking out eight. He threw 89 pitches, 59 for strikes, and spent most of the night keeping Cincinnati from turning traffic into damage. The Reds had baserunners. They had chances. They put pressure on him.

May kept answering.

The Reds had two hits in the first inning, but May got Spencer Steer to ground out and kept the game scoreless. He worked a clean second. He gave up a single in the third but struck out JJ Bleday and Eugenio Suárez around it. The fourth inning brought Cincinnati’s first run, but even that came after May nearly worked his way through another tight spot.

Bleday opened the fourth with a single. Suárez singled with one out, and after Nick Lowe struck out, Steer walked to load the bases. Tyler Stephenson then drove a ground-rule double to right, scoring Bleday and giving Cincinnati a 1-0 lead.

That could have become a crooked inning.

May did not let it.

With the bases still loaded, he struck out Will Benson Myers to end the inning and keep the Cardinals within one run.

That was the kind of pitch a starter has to make.

May made it.

He continued to battle in the fifth and then escaped his biggest test in the sixth. Cincinnati loaded the bases with one out after Suárez walked and Lowe and Stephenson singled. With the Reds threatening to stretch the lead, May got Myers to ground into a fielder’s choice, with Blaze Jordan throwing home to cut down Suárez.

Then May got Leo Arroyo to fly out to right.

Still 1-0.

Still within reach.

The problem was that the Cardinals’ offense had done almost nothing against Rhett Lowder.

Lowder did not overpower St. Louis with a dominant line, but he controlled the game well enough. The Cardinals went quietly through the first four innings, striking out, rolling over and failing to build anything. JJ Wetherholt drew a walk in the third, but Jordan Walker grounded into a double play.

The Cardinals were stuck.

Then the fifth finally gave them a chance.

Iván Herrera was hit by a pitch to open the inning. Lars Nootbaar grounded out, moving Herrera to second. Masyn Winn struck out, leaving the Cardinals down to one out and still trailing by a run.

Nathan Church walked.

That brought Jordan to the plate.

Jordan came through, driving a sharp double to left field. Herrera scored. Church scored. The Cardinals had a 2-1 lead.

That was the swing St. Louis needed.

It also turned out to be the only real offensive moment of the night.

The Cardinals had May on the mound, a one-run lead in hand and a chance to take control of the series opener. But with this offense, every lead feels fragile because there is rarely enough add-on pressure behind it.

Friday night was another example.

The Cardinals did not get another hit until Jimmy Crooks doubled in the eighth. They did not score after Jordan’s double. They finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left only three men on base, mostly because they did not put enough traffic on the bases in the first place.

Two hits.

Three walks.

Nine strikeouts.

That was the offensive line.

It wasted May’s night.

George Soriano took over in the seventh with a 2-1 lead, and Cincinnati flipped the game quickly. Sal Stewart singled to open the inning. Soriano struck out Bleday and got Suárez into a two-out spot after Stewart remained aboard.

Then Suárez changed the game.

He drove a two-run home run to left-center field, giving Cincinnati a 3-2 lead. One swing. Two runs. Game flipped.

That was the difference.

Soriano entered with the lead and left with the loss and a blown save. He allowed two runs on three hits in one inning, and the mistake to Suárez gave the Reds all the late offense they needed.

Ryan Stanek gave the Cardinals a clean eighth, striking out two. Luis Gastelum took the ninth and had trouble finding the zone. Elly De La Cruz reached, stole second, and eventually scored when Stewart singled to left. That pushed Cincinnati’s lead to 4-2 and gave Emilio Pagán more breathing room in the ninth.

The Cardinals had one last chance to make noise.

They did not.

Burleson flied out to center. Herrera struck out. Nootbaar struck out. Pagán closed it with a clean ninth, and Cincinnati walked out of Busch Stadium with a series-opening win.

The Reds finished with four runs on 11 hits. Suárez had the biggest swing of the night, going 2-for-4 with the two-run homer and two RBIs. Stewart had two hits and drove in the insurance run. Stephenson had two hits, including the ground-rule double that opened the scoring. De La Cruz singled, walked, stole two bases and scored the final run.

Cincinnati had plenty of chances and did not cash in all of them. The Reds went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.

The Cardinals still could not take advantage.

That is the part that stings.

May gave them six strong innings. Cincinnati left runners everywhere. The Cardinals had a 2-1 lead after five innings. Milwaukee lost earlier in the night. This was sitting there as an opportunity to bank a division win at home and maybe make up a little ground.

Instead, the Cardinals lost another game in which the pitching gave them a real chance.

The offensive drought is no longer just a one-night story.

St. Louis scored one run Wednesday in Anaheim and won only because Hunter Dobbins and the bullpen threw a shutout. The Cardinals scored six Thursday against Arizona, but most of that came late after the Diamondbacks had already taken control. Friday, they were back to almost nothing.

Two hits.

That is not enough.

Not for a club trying to stay in the postseason picture.

Not against Cincinnati.

Not at home.

Not when the starter gives you six innings and eight strikeouts.

The lineup had almost no answers. Wetherholt walked twice but went hitless. Walker went 0-for-4. Burleson went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Herrera scored but struck out twice. Nootbaar went 0-for-4. Winn went hitless. Church walked and scored. Jordan had the double and both RBIs. Crooks had the only other hit.

That was it.

The Cardinals are living on too many thin margins right now. When the pitching breaks, the game gets away. When the pitching holds, the offense often does not provide enough cushion. When they finally get a lead, one mistake can erase it because there are no extra runs stacked behind it.

That is a hard way to stay in a race.

May deserved better. He was not perfect, but he competed through traffic and gave the Cardinals a winning start. He kept Cincinnati to one run through six innings. He escaped jams. He missed bats. He did his job.

The Cardinals did not finish it behind him.

That has happened too often.

The loss drops St. Louis to 52-51 and adds another layer of frustration to a stretch that has already had too many missed opportunities. The Cardinals returned home needing to steady themselves after a rocky road trip and Thursday’s makeup-game loss to Arizona. Instead, they dropped the opener to a Reds team trying to climb back into the picture itself.

There are still two games left in the series.

That is the practical reality.

But Friday night was there to be won.

The Cardinals had the lead.

They had the starter.

They had the chance.

They did not have the offense.

And because of that, one seventh-inning swing from Suárez was enough to send the Reds past St. Louis, 4-2.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Dustin May, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB