KSReds: Cincinnati Reds Avoid Sweep in St. Louis With Sunday Win

Winning in St. Louis against the National League Central rival Cardinals is never easy. Over the weekend, the Cincinnati Reds made it a little harder on themselves with zero offense on Friday and shaky bullpen work on Saturday and Sunday. The Reds should have won the series, but wasted a strong pitching performance by Luis Castillo and company on Friday followed by a meltdown in the late innings on Saturday. In the end, all the Reds could manage was to avoid the sweep with a dramatic 7-6 Sunday late afternoon win. Cincinnati is now 21-39 through 60 games.

Up next is a trip further west to play the Arizona Diamondbacks. Veteran left-hander Mike Minor is scheduled to make the start at 9:40 p.m. EST in Arizona on Monday night. Tyler Mahle and Luis Castillo are also slated to pitch out west.

Early Errors, Lack of Offense Dooms the Reds

There isn’t much as a baseball fan that is more frustrating than watching great pitching go to waste. That is what happened on Friday night in St. Louis. The Cincinnati Reds got a strong performance from Luis Castillo and quality bullpen work as well. However, two first-inning errors led to a pair of runs and that is all the Cardinals needed.

It was back-to-back throwing errors by Aristides Aquino and Brandon Drury that led to the two first-inning runs for the Cardinals. In fairness to the Reds’ defense, Castillo hit a batter, walked another, and allowed two hits in the inning. However, two errors certainly didn’t help the cause. Cincinnati’s starter would exit after six innings of work scattering six hits and just one earned run. Castillo is just 2-4 in the record column but boasts a strong 3.23 earned run average. He is giving the Reds a chance to win every time he pitches.

At the plate, Cincy managed just four hits of their own on the way to being shut out. The St. Louis Cardinals held on down the stretch to begin the series with a 2-0 victory.

Bullpen Collapse Leads to Walk-Off Loss

For the second straight night, a productive starting pitching performance went unrewarded. Hunter Greene wasn’t his sharpest while battling through some pitch inefficiency. However, he still gave the Cincinnati Reds a chance to win. The talented rookie allowed just one run on two hits in five innings while striking out seven Cardinals. Alexis Diaz and Luis Cessa got the Reds to the eighth inning still having allowed just one run. That was when things turned south for Cincinnati.

Tommy Pham got the scoring started for the Reds in the third inning with a two-run double. Then, Kyle Farmer came through with a RBI single to score Pham and take a 3-0 advantage. St. Louis scored via a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth, but Cincy added an insurance run back in the eighth with an Alejo Lopez pinch-hit RBI single. With just six outs needed and a 4-1 lead, it appeared that the Reds would even the series. However, Hunter Strickland and Joel Kuhnel couldn’t close the door.

It was Tyler O’Neill who struck first for the Cardinals with a two-run double to deep centerfield to make it a 4-3 game. In the bottom of the ninth, Tommy Edman lifted one out into the right-field seats for a walk-off home run to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 5-4 victory. Another frustrating loss in a frustrating overall season for the Reds.

Reds Hold on to Avoid Sweep

It certainly wasn’t easy, but the Cincinnati Reds finally got some run support and held on to escape St. Louis with a 7-6 win over the Cardinals. The Sunday evening victory avoided a series sweep and moved the Reds to a 21-39 overall record. It was the Cardinals who struck first, getting one across in the bottom of the first followed by a Nolan Arenado two-run home run in the third inning to make it 3-0. In the top of the fourth the Reds answered by manufacturing a couple of runs and then tying it up with a big two-out single by T.J. Friedl to make it 3-3.

The ball clubs traded runs in the fifth inning to keep the score tied at 4-4. Nick Senzel hit a sacrifice fly in the top half before Albert Pujols knocked a ground rule double into the right centerfield gap in the bottom of the fifth. More offense came in the seventh inning including a triple by Friedl that put Cincinnati on top once again. Tommy Pham added what proved to be a crucial insurance run in the eighth with a 400-foot blast into the left field bleachers to make it 7-4.

As was the case on Saturday night, the Reds didn’t make it easy on themselves in the final inning. However, this time, they were able to still escape with the win. Alexis Diaz came in looking to record the save but first gave up a two-run home run to Juan Yepez that cut their deficit to one. Diaz managed to answer by striking out Pujols to end the game with a 7-6 win.