Shelby Miller pitches gem in St. Louis Cardinals shutout of Cincinnati Reds

Shelby Miller pitched a gem of game as the St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Cincinnati Reds in a 5-0 victory on Monday night.

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• Cardinals: Putting together a trade for Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds
• Cardinals: 3 insider insights as St. Louis approach the Winter Meetings
• St. Louis Cardinals: 3 free agent bench options to consider
• John Mozeliak gives an update on the St. Louis Cardinals off-season plans
• Cardinals: Adam Wainwright commits to Team USA for the WBC

For the Texan native, this was the third consecutive game of pitching seven innings. Miller allowed three hits and was pulled with a runner on in the eighth inning. He struck out four batters on the night. With his ninth win of the season, Miller earned a decision for the first time since August 11. Despite stellar outings against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, Miller did not earn a decision in those performances.

Pat Neshek relieved Miller to close out the eighth inning. The All-Star reliever pitched a perfect inning for his 23rd hold of the season. Neshek now posts a 1.33 ERA on the season. At this point in the season, it seems doubtful that Neshek gets back to an ERA under 1 as it was prior to giving up four runs to the Cubs on August 29.

With runners on the corners in the seventh inning, Matt Carpenter singled to drive in Randal Grichuk and Kolten Wong to put two runs on the board.

With a 2-0 lead heading into the top of the ninth inning, it seemed inevitable that Neshek would close out the game or manager Mike Matheny would decide to send in Trevor Rosenthal for the save. The decision changed when Matt Adams launched his fifteen home run this season to center field for a three-run blast, scoring both Jon Jay and Peter Bourjos.

Sam Freeman a perfect ninth inning to close out the game with a shutout.

The Cardinals had ten hits on the evening but didn’t do most of their damage until the final three innings of the game. Matt Holliday, Carpenter, Grichuk, and Wong each had a pair of hits. Both Jay and Adams had a hit a piece.

After Reds starter Dylan Axelrod left the game after seven pitches with a right oblique strain, it turned out to be a bullpen game for the Reds pitching. David Holmberg stepped up for the Reds tonight with 5.2 innings out of the pen. Pedro Villarreal was the only Reds pitcher other than Holmberg that saw more than an inning of action.

ESPN announced their final Sunday Night Baseball telecast on September 21 will feature the Cardinals and the Reds. While a New York Yankees game would have made since with Derek Jeter in the final month of his career, the Yankees game against the Baltimore Orioles has been picked up for this upcoming weekend.