Reds fall in 13 innings to the Cardinals, 5-3

The Cincinnati Reds bullpen was lights out after entering the game in the 5th inning. They didn’t give up a run until the 13th and that was when starting pitcher Chase Anderson had come into the game as the bullpen was depleted. Unfortunately for Cincinnati he gave up three runs and that was too much for the offense to overcome in the bottom of the inning as the St. Louis Cardinals held on for a 5-3 win to take the series.

The Offense

Cincinnati only had a single from Donovan Solano through the first two innings but they went to work in the 3rd inning. Aristides Aquino singled to lead off the inning and Jose Barrero followed with a walk. They would move up on a ground out and then they would each score on back-to-back singles from Jonathan India and Nick Senzel. The India single extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

In both the 4th and 6th innings the Reds singled twice but couldn’t get that third hit to bring a run across the plate as the game remained tied up at 2-2. With the game tied up in the 8th Stuart Fairchild drew a 2-out walk, but he was picked off and sprinted for second before being easily thrown out at the bag to end the inning.

The bottom of the 9th inning began with a bunt single by TJ Friedl, who may be the best bunter in professional baseball. Jose Barrero battled for a 9-pitch at-bat but came up just a few feet short of a walk-off home run as he flew out to the warning track in left field. Jake Fraley struck out and then the Cardinals went to the bullpen to bring in Ryan Helsley to face Jonathan India and he walked him, moving Friedl up to second base. Austin Romine came to the plate next and he popped up to Paul Goldschmidt in foul territory to end the inning and send the game to extras.

After Reiver Sanmartin kept the Cardinals off of the scoreboard in the top of the 10th inning the Reds had an opportunity to walk it off once again with Austin Romine starting on second base. Kyle Farmer grounded out to third, keeping Romine at second. Donovan Solano then struck out to bring up Alejo Lopez. St. Louis chose to walk Lopez to face Stuart Fairchild, but David Bell called on Colin Moran to gain the platoon match up against the hard throwing Helsley. He struck out on three straight pitches over 100 MPH.

Colin Moran began the 11th inning on second base and TJ Friedl beat out an infield single to second base and put runners on the corners with no outs. St. Louis opted to bring an extra infielder on and all of them playing in against Jose Barrero and for the time being that drawn in infield worked as Barrero grounded the ball to first base, moving Friedl up to second but not bringing in Moran at third. Jake Fraley came up and the infield remained packed. He grounded the ball to Tommy Edman at shortstop who fired home and the throw was a bit wide, but Molina jumped back to get the tag at the plate for the second out of the inning. David Bell came out to challenge the play – both whether he was safe or not and whether Molina was blocking the plate or not. The Reds lost the challenge as the play “stood” as called. Jonathan India was then walked intentionally, bringing Austin Romine to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. He would ground out to end the inning and the game headed to the 12th.

The bottom of the 12th began with Austin Romine on second and he moved up to third base on the first pitch of the inning when Kyle Farmer laid down a sacrifice bunt. That led to the Cardinals going back to their 5-man infield. They then intentionally walked Donovan Solano to bring Alejo Lopez up to the plate from the left side of the plate. Lopez grounded the ball to short and Romine broke for the plate and was tagged out on the eyeball as he slid headfirst. With two outs and runners on first and second Colin Moran hit a ball about 45 feet, but he beat the throw to first base to load the bases for TJ Friedl, but he grounded out to second base to end the inning and once again the game went to another inning.

Cincinnati needed a big rally in the bottom of the 13th after the Cardinals. Jose Barrero grounded out to first base and moved TJ Friedl over to third base. Jake Fraley then singled to make it a 5-3 ballgame and bring Jonathan India to the plate and he would draw a walk to put the tying run on first base. Austin Romine struck out for the second out of the inning, leaving the game up to Kyle Farmer. He grounded into a force out on the first pitch to end the game as the Reds lost the series.

The Pitching

Mike Minor helped himself out a bit in the 1st inning by inducing a ground ball double play after a leadoff single. In the next inning he helped out out himself and Donovan Solano on a grounder that Solano threw off target to a covering Minor who barehanded the throw before stepping on the bag.

Mike Minor with the play, Joey Votto with the call! pic.twitter.com/OQQkuaO2fD

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 31, 2022

The Reds took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning, but the lead didn’t last for long. In the top of the 4th Minor gave up a leadoff single to Paul Goldschmidt and then a 2-run homer to Nolan Arenado. Those would be the only two runs that he would give up on the day, but after giving up a 2-out single in the 5th inning he was replaced by Ian Gibaut who came on and stranded the runner to keep the game tied up. Arenado led off the 6th inning with a double, but he was thrown out on a fielders choice at third base later in the inning to squash the Cardinals threat.

Art Warren came out of the bullpen to take over in the 7th inning and he ran into trouble by giving up a leadoff single and a 1-out double to put the go ahead runs in scoring position. That’s when the Reds turned to Buck Farmer to come in and he got out of the jam with a strikeout and a ground out. Hunter Strickland pitched a perfect 8th inning to follow and keep the game tied up before Alexis Diaz came out for the 9th inning. He had to work around a walk but did just that and gave the Reds a chance to walk things off in the bottom of the inning.

The offense didn’t walk it off, so Reiver Sanmartin entered the game for the top of the 10th inning with Tommy Edman standing on second base to start the inning. He would strike Corey Dickerson out, but walked Paul Goldschmidt to put him on first. The lefty then came through with a big time ground ball to Jose Barrero who flipped to Alejo Lopez, who then fired to first base to turn a double play and end the inning.

Sanmartin returned for the top of the 11th to face Albert Pujols, who has crushed lefties this year. Sanmartin got Pujols to fly out to right, but Nolan Arenado advanced to third base on the play. Tyler O’Neill followed up with a 99 MPH laser that Jose Barrero snagged and fired to first after looking Arenado back to third base. After a walk put runners on the corners Sanmartin struck out Yadier Molina on three pitches to keep the game tied up.

Derek Law entered the game for the 12th and walked Brendan Donovan to lead off the inning, but he retired the next three batters in a row to keep the game tied at 2-2, giving Cincinnati yet another chance to bring in the winning run in the bottom of the inning. Chase Anderson, who started just two days ago, entered the game for the 13th inning. A ground out moved Paul Goldschmidt to third base and a sacrifice fly from Albert Pujols put St. Louis in front for the first time all day. They quickly added to their lead after a walk and a 2-run homer from Lars Nootbaar that made it 5-2.

Notes Worth Noting

Aristides Aquino went 3-3 with a run scored. It was his first 3-hit game since September 26th of 2019.

The Cardinals went 0-17 with runners in scoring position in the game.

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