Cincinnati Reds Swept by Cardinals Despite Leake’s Strong Start

2. 33. . 1. 61

Different day, same story for the Cincinnati Reds. The St. Louis Cardinals, sporting a full 25-man roster, were able to complete the sweep of the undermanned Reds, 2-1 on Sunday Night Baseball.

Just as they did in the prior two games, the Cardinals took another quick lead on Matt Carpenter‘s leadoff home run to center field off of Mike Leake in the first inning.

The Reds tied up the game in the third when Brandon Phillips hit a bloop single to score Joey Votto.

After giving up the leadoff home run and a single in the first, Leake settled in nicely, retiring 15 batters in a row before the red-hot Carpenter lined a single to center in the sixth. Leake was certainly not the reason the Reds lost, as he pitched an eight-inning complete game, giving up two runs on four hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

Unfortunately for Leake and the Reds, Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright was dialed in as well. After giving up the run-scoring single to Phillips in the third, Wainwright retired 12 in a row until a hit by Tucker Barnhart in the seventh. The Reds managed to get seven hits off of Wainwright, but could only get one run across the plate.

The game remained tied at one until the eighth inning when Jon Jay led off with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Kolten Wong.

The Reds had a chance to tie the game in the ninth as Brennan Boesch singled and stole second, but the team’s lack of depth was on full display as they were unable to score. With Billy Hamilton and Devin Mesoraco out (though Bryan Price maintains that Mesoraco is “available to pinch hit”), the Reds had a three-man bench today, forcing the Reds to use Brayan Pena as a pinch hitter. Pena promptly popped out to third on the first pitch he saw and Skip Schumaker — who batted leadoff in this game, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom — grounded out to first to end the game with a whimper.

Other Notes:

The game flew by, ending in just two hours and two minutes.
Joey Votto continued his excellent hitting, going 2-for-4 on the day to raise his average to .364.

Up Next: The Reds (5-7) travel to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers (2-10) in Miller Park on Monday. Anthony DeSclafani will look to continue his hot start while Wily Peralta will pitch for the Brewers. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 p.m. ET.

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