Reds 5 – Cardinals 3

Complete Recap

Chris Carpenter had his best outing thus far, going 6 innings allowing only two runs off two hits. In this affair the hits went 4 for the Reds and 8 to the Cardinals and the Reds still came out on top with a two run victory.

The Cardinals enjoyed a good little lead for most of the game before the 6th inning, when Joey Votto got his only hit on the day in the shape of a two run HR to tie the game. In the bottom half of the same inning Albert Pujols stepped in and delivered a massive shot to put the Cardinals back on top for the time being.

Both teams stretched the bullpen today, allowing four pitchers for each team. Hard throwing Aroldis Chapman, the man known for the 106 mph fastball, took over for starter Travis Wood in the bottom of the of the 7th and went on to pick up the victory after only 0.2 innings as a result of the Reds scoring drive in the top of the 8th.

Miguel Batista picked up the loss for the work done in the 8th. He only recorded 0.2 official innings and gave up 3 runs, none of them being counted as earned runs to his record.

Already being down and without much more run support, the Cardinals turned to Ryan Franklin for the last out of the 8th and the entire 9th inning. I will give credit where credit is due, all he allowed was two hits and did his part to keep the game intact and give the team a chance to overtake the lead. Unfortunately the offense didn’t have the firepower to finish it out and Francisco Cordero came in to pick up his 3rd save on the season.

With the series tied 1-1, now we look to the final game on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN to see who will not only take the deciding game of the series, but who also will come out on top of the NL Central and start the new week as the division leader.