The St. Louis Cardinals entered Monday night’s match-up against the rival Cincinnati Reds winning five of their last six games (with the one loss coming against Atlanta on Sunday). Meanwhile, with the trade deadline looming, the Reds made headlines themselves, trading away ace Johnny Cueto to the Kansas City Royals for two prospects.
On Monday night, in the first of a three game series, it turned out to be one big home run that helped give St. Louis their 64th win of the baseball season.
For the game, the starting pitchers were Lance Lynn (7-5, 2.80) and Raisel Iglesias (1-2, 5.45).
After two straight scoreless innings by both teams, the Reds were able to get on the scoreboard first during the top of the third inning. It began with a single by Brandon Phillips. Joey Votto was then hit a pitch, advancing Phillips to second. Todd Frazier was issued a walk next, loading the bases for Jay Bruce. Bruce hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Phillips to make it 1-0 Reds.
Brayan Pena grounded into a double play to end the top of the third inning after the sacrifice fly.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, the Cardinals were about to take not only the lead, but also control of the game for the rest of the night.
It started with a double by catcher Yadier Molina. Stephen Piscotty followed that with a single, sending Molina to third. Dan Johnson popped out, to keep the runners on first and third with one out. Peter Bourjos loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Lynn stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded, but struck out, bringing up lead-off hitter Kolten Wong.
And Wong crushed his 11th home run of the season, hitting a grand slam to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead, while the Busch Stadium crowd of over 43,000 was on their feet.
On the mound, Lynn pitched a well after allowing the sole run in the top of the third. He only allowed two hits after the third inning, and, when in the top of the eighth, he was taken out in place of Kevin Siegrist, his final line was: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 Ks.
Closer Trevor Rosenthal entered the game to pitch the top of the ninth, and pitched a 1-2-3 inning, to earn his 31st save of the season, as the Cardinals defeated the Reds 4-1. Lynn improved to 8-5, while Iglesias dropped to 1-3. The Cardinals also improve to 64-35 on the season, and continue their impressive dominance at home.
On Tuesday night, Jaime Garcia is expected to return to the rotation for the Cardinals, and make the start. Garcia has been impressive this season (his ERA is 1.69), but has struggled with injuries, which has limited his impact with the team.
(AP Photo/Scott Kane)
