Winn, Leahy Lead Cardinals Past Reds
THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Winn, Leahy Lead Cardinals Past Reds
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
CINCINNATI — Masyn Winn homered, doubled twice and helped anchor the defense behind Kyle Leahy, who earned his 10th win as the St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0, Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park.
The Cardinals, coming off a split in Monday’s doubleheader, got five scoreless innings from Leahy and four more from the bullpen. Riley O’Brien handled the ninth for his National League-leading 32nd save, giving St. Louis another clean finish in a game that mattered in the middle of a five-game series.
Leahy allowed three hits, walked none and struck out six over five innings. He threw 90 pitches, 57 for strikes, and kept Cincinnati from turning limited traffic into any real pressure. The Reds finished with only three hits and went scoreless for the night after scoring late to win Monday’s second game in extra innings.
Winn gave the Cardinals the lead in the fifth, sending a solo home run to left field off Andrew Abbott. It was his fifth homer of the season and the first run of a game that had been controlled by both starters through four innings.
St. Louis added another run in the seventh when Winn doubled to left and scored on José Fermín’s double to deep left, stretching the lead to 2-0. The Cardinals pushed it to 3-0 in the eighth after Jordan Walker reached on an infield single, Alec Burleson doubled him to third and Joshua Báez lifted a sacrifice fly to center.
That was enough for the pitching staff.
Ryne Stanek worked a perfect sixth after Leahy exited. Gordon Graceffo allowed a walk but got through the seventh, and George Soriano worked a clean eighth before O’Brien entered in the ninth. O’Brien closed it out, giving the Cardinals another save from the right-hander who continues to lead the National League.
The bullpen combined for four hitless innings, allowing only one walk and striking out two. For a club playing its third game in two days, that kind of relief work mattered.
Winn was the difference offensively and defensively. He finished 3-for-4 with three extra-base hits, two runs scored and an RBI, and he also supplied a couple of highlight-reel plays at shortstop that helped preserve the shutout. The box score will show the homer and the two doubles, but his glove was part of the story as well.
The Cardinals had other chances but did not break the game open. They finished with seven hits, left seven men on base and struck out eight times. JJ Wetherholt and Iván Herrera each went hitless at the top of the order, but the bottom third of the lineup gave St. Louis the production it needed. Winn drove the offense, Fermín added the RBI double, and Pedro Pagés reached twice with a single and a walk.
Abbott kept Cincinnati close, allowing two runs on four hits over 6.1 innings. He walked two and struck out six, but Winn’s homer in the fifth and the seventh-inning rally put the Reds behind. Zach Maxwell allowed the final run over 2.2 innings.
Cincinnati had its best early chance in the first after Sal Stewart singled with one out, but Leahy struck out JJ Bleday and Eugenio Suárez to end the inning. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled in the third, and Dane Myers opened the fifth with a single, but the Reds never found the extra-base hit or sustained inning they needed.
Elly De La Cruz went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts one night after delivering his first career walk-off hit. Tyler Stephenson struck out three times, and the Reds struck out eight times overall.
For the Cardinals, the win was a strong response after Monday night’s missed opportunity. They had let a 4-1 lead slip away in the second game of the doubleheader, but came back Tuesday with a shutout, a sharp start, another O’Brien save and one of Winn’s best all-around games of the season.
The Cardinals did not need a big inning. They needed pitching, defense and enough offense from the bottom of the order.
They got all three.
Cardinals 3, Reds 0.
That’s a winner.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Masyn Winn, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB