St. Louis Cardinals beat Reds 6-1, extend NL Central lead

The St. Louis Cardinals soundly defeated the Cincinnati Reds 6-1 last night and extended their lead in the NL Central.
Aug 27, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Joe Kelly (58) throws to a Cincinnati Reds batter during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Image Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Kelly took to the mound for his sixth start in August and picked up his 5th win of the month. In picking up his 5th win in August, he became the 12th Cardinal to have an August record of 5-0 or 6-0. The last two were Chris Carpenter in 2009 and Matt Morris in 2001. In six innings, Kelly allowed eight hits, one run, one walk, and struck out three batters.

Since joining the rotation, Kelly has enjoyed a 2.24 ERA in nine starts. The Cardinals have won eight of the nine games. The only loss came to the Atlanta Braves on July 27th.

Kevin Siegrist pitched the seventh inning and extended his scoreless streak for the month of August. He has not given up a run in 13 appearances this month. He has a 0.64 ERA.

Trevor Rosenthal handled the eighth inning and Seth Maness handled the ninth inning.

The only run allowed was a home run to Shin-Soo Choo to lead off the 5th inning. The home run in the 5th followed yet another mistake by the Reds. One day after Joey Votto forgot how many outs there were, Zack Cozart didn’t see third base coach Mark Berry wave the stop sign and was tagged out due to Jay Bruce already being at third base.

After a bit of a dry spell for the Cards, they appear to have gotten their act back together with winning 12 of the last 16 games.

“This is the team that I’ve seen for the bulk of this season,” manager Mike Matheny said in a
MLB.com article. “This is the team that I believe these guys expect us to be every time we walk out of the dugout.”

The Cardinals got on the board in the first inning with two runs. Matt Carpenter scored on a Matt Holliday single. Allen Craig grounded into a double play but knocked in Carlos Beltran.

In the sixth inning, Craig doubled and drove in Beltran.

In the seventh inning, Jon Jay scored when Carpenter hit a sac fly.

The eighth inning saw a few more runs. David Freese drove in Shane Robinson on a single. Later in the inning, Yadier Molina scored when Daniel Descalso hit the ball to second and forced Jay out. At the time, it appeared that Phillips was hesitant about whether to throw to first or second. By the time Jay was out at second, there was no play to make at first base.