Lackey’s performance not enough in loss

Fresh off a day of rest on Monday, the St. Louis Cardinals started a three game series on Tuesday night against one of their National League Central rivals: the Cincinnati Reds. The two teams recently faced off at Busch Stadium, where the Reds took two out of three games.

And in the first game of the series, the Reds won in what was a pitching-dominated game, by the score of 3-2.

The starting pitchers for the evening were John Lackey for the Cardinals, and Anthony DeSclafani for the Reds.

Cincinnati started off the game strong, scoring all three of their runs in the bottom of the first inning. It started with a lead-off single by Brandon Phillips. Joey Votto followed the Phillips single with a single of his own. Todd Frazier grounded into a double play next, as Phillips headed to third base.

With two outs, Jay Bruce doubled to left field, scoring Phillips, to make it 1-0 Reds. Marlon Byrd came up to bat next, and doubled to score Bruce and make it a 2-0 lead in the early goings of the game. Lackey issued a walk to Brayan Pena, bringing up Eugenio Suarez, who singled and scored Byrd, as the score suddenly was 3-0.

Other than the rough first inning, however, Lackey was sharp. At one point during the game, Lackey had retired 14 straight batters, and he pitched a shutout throughout the remainder of his stint in Tuesday’s game.

As for the Cardinals offense, DeSclafani held them in check for most of the evening. But they did get on the board in the top of the third inning. Following a triple by Randal Grichuk, Matt Carpenter launched a two-run home run to make it 3-2 Reds.

Seth Maness entered the game to relieve Lackey in the bottom of the seventh inning. The veteran’s final line of the game was: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks.

In the end, however, Lackey’s strong night overall wasn’t enough to overcome his rough start, and Aroldis Chapman pitched the top of the ninth, shutting down St. Louis as Cincinnati won 3-2. Lackey drops to 9-7 on the year, while DeSclafani improves to 7-7.  The Cardinals drop to 67-69, and the Reds improve to 48-56.

On Wednesday night, Carlos Martinez gets the start on the mound.

(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)