Reds 7 – Cardinals 3

Complete Recap

Johnny Cueto took the mound this afternoon against perhaps one of the hottest pitchers in baseball to pick up his second win and his ERA still remains a 0.00.

The Cards came into the game with only half a game lead in a much win situation to keep them on top of the Reds. Kyle McClellan took the mound for the Redbirds to try and get the job done but unfortunately the offense was not able to catch up to what he was throwing out and he suffers his first loss on the season.
The Reds hit the board first in the Bottom of the 2nd. St. Louis’s most hated man Brandon Phillips homered to left center to lead off the inning, they jumped in front 1-0 Reds. The Bottom of the 3rd was no different, Ramon Hernandez hits a solo home run to left in the lead off spot and the Reds are now up 2-0.

The Bottom of the 5th sees Ramon Hernandez do his part again. He leads off the Bottom of the 5th with yet another solo jack and it’s 3-0 Reds with all the Reds coming off of solo home runs. Johnny Cueto comes up next in the pitchers spot to single, Drew Stubbs hits into a force out to get Cueto at second, but Drew ends up stealing during the next at bat to put himself at second. McClellan lends the intentional walk to Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips then comes in to single and the score is 4-0 Reds.

By the Bottom of the 7th the club has seen enough of McClellan on the day and Ryan Franklin takes over. The first batter is Drew Stubbs and he doubles, Paul Janish throws down a sac bunt, Ryan Franklin also intentionally walks Joey Votto, and Brandon Phillips lays down a sac bunt to score Drew Stubbs and get his 3rd RBI on the day, 5-0 Reds. Ryan Franklin now has a 9.88 ERA on the season.

The Top of 8th is the Cardinals only time to strike on the day. Daniel Descalso is the first to get something done as he reaches on a fielding error by shortstop Paul Janish. The next batter is Tyler Greene and he too reaches base on a fielding error, this time by Scott Rolen, and runners are on first and second. The next batter is Jon Jay who hits his 3rd home run on the season and in an odd scenario, Jon Jay puts together for 3 runs and that is what he is charged for, but due to the errors it does not go against his ERA and the score is now 5-3 Reds.

The Bottom of the 8th is the beginning of the end and the Reds start to pull away with the game. Scott Rolen leads off with a single, Ramon Hernandez singles, and Fred Lewis singles to score Scott Rolen but Ramon Hernandez is thrown out at 3rd. Drew Stubbs is next and he singles to send Fred Lewis to 3rd, the next batter is Paul Janish who sees a wild pitch by Jason Motte to score Fred Lewis.

The game ends 7-3 and the Reds now lead the Central by half a game with the final match coming Sunday afternoon.

Winning Pitcher: Johnny Cueto (2-0 : 0.00 ERA)

Losing Pitcher: Kyle McClellan (5-1 : 3.62 ERA)