Safe to say that many expected the St. Louis Cardinals vs Cincinnati Reds series to be some high-scoring affairs. Tuesday night was not that kind of game as both Kyle Leahy of the Cardinals and Andrew Abbott of the Reds were mowing down batters with only a few exceptions. The Cardinals bats would provide the necessary offense later in the game led by Masyn Winn’s 3 extra-base hits including a home run.
For the first half of the game, the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals only had 2 hits apiece. Fortunately for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of those hits cleared the left field wall as Masyn Winn connected on a 90 mph four-seam fastball from Abbott and sent it 368 feet over the left field wall for a line drive homer to make it 1-0 Cardinals.
Kyle Leahy held the Reds scoreless through 5 innings, but his pitch count hit 90 so the Cardinals solution for the 6th inning was Ryne Stanek. He set the Reds down 1-2-3 with a couple of pop-outs and a ground out in the bottom of the 6th inning. Kyle Leahy’s final stat line for Tuesday night was an impressive 3-hit shutout through 5 innings while striking out 6 and walking no one.
The Cardinals would double their lead in the top of the 7th inning and Masyn Winn would again play a role in that. He led off the inning with a double, but seemed to jam his left hand as he slid into second base which resulted in a visit from the training staff. He stayed in the game and scored two pitches later when José Fermín ripped a double off of the bottom of the left field wall giving St. Louis a 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals missed an opportunity to score even more after Pedro Pagés punched a single just over the head of Cruz into short centerfield for a single to give St. Louis runners at first and third with just one out. Unfortunately, JJ Wetherholt struck out and Iván Herrera grounded out to end the Cardinals half of the 7th.
The Cardinals asked Gordon Graceffo to handle the Reds in the bottom of the 7th inning. After he walked Suarez leading off the bottom of the 7th, he was helped by a strikeout and then a nice defensive play up the middle when JJ Wetherholt was able to snag a ball hit by Myers and turn it into a force out to Winn at second.
St. Louis would threaten again to extend the lead in the top of the 8th inning when Jordan Walker reached on an infield single to Elly De La Cruz followed by a double that Alec Burleson hit off of the left-centerfield wall which moved Jordan Walker to third. Joshua Baez then lifted a sacrifice fly to center which scored Walker and gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 8th inning.
George Soriano entered the game in the bottom of the 8th inning. He got Rodriguez out on a ground out, Hayes on a pop-out and then struck out Cruz. The Cardinals did not help their cause in the top of the 9th as Fermin, Pages and Wetherholt went down in order.
The bottom of the 9th would be handled by the National League saves leader Riley O’Brien. Sal Stewart was first up and he lined the first pitch he saw into JJ Wetherholt’s glove for the first out. JJ Bleday was next up and he flew out to short left field for the second out. Eugenio Suarez was the last hope for the Reds, but Riley struck him out to secure a St. Louis Cardinals shutout of Cincinnati.
It’s game 4 of the St. Louis Cardinals 5-game series vs the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday evening as Matthew Liberatore will hopefully be the best version of himself as he’s the scheduled starter. The Reds will force Chase Burns onto the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.