4 standouts in St. Louis Cardinals series win over Reds

Pitching woes and struggles at the plate kept the St. Louis Cardinals from sweeping the Cincinnati Reds.

The St. Louis Cardinals had a string of bad luck that featured many of the team’s lingering issues as the Cincinnati Reds were able to avoid getting swept.

Making good on some errors by the Reds and some effective pitching helped the Cardinals win on Friday.

In the first inning, Nolan Arenado singled to right field, allowing Paul Goldschmidt to score. Arenado got to second base thanks to a throwing error by Aristides Aquino. Tyler O’Neill singled to third base. Arenado scored and O’Neill ended up at second base thanks to a throwing error from Brandon Drury.

Thankfully that was all the offense the Cardinals needed Friday. The team’s pitching effort Friday will be discussed in a slide to follow.

Tyler O’Neill had a good game at the plate Saturday, going 1-for-2 with three RBI and a walk. In the sixth inning, O’Neill hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Tommy Edman. In the eighth inning, O’Neill doubled to centerfield, scoring Nolan Gorman and Nolan Arenado. It’s nice to see him improving at the plate. He isn’t where we saw him in 2021, but he’s working to build up to that level.

On Sunday, the Cardinals got a huge home run off the bat of Nolan Arenado, scoring Tyler O’Neill. It was Arenado’s 11th home run of the year.

In the eighth inning, Albert Pujols helped things get a little closer as he knocked a ground-rule double to right-center field.

While Tyler O’Neill scored, Brendan Donovan had to retreat to third base, rather than scoring. This ultimately held the team back as they were unable to score again this inning.

The Cardinals’ offense was 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base. Not moving those runners around to score ultimately proved detrimental to the Cardinals and exacerbated an issue the team has had in not getting timely hits to get those runs across the plate.

The Cardinals were able to get seven innings of work out of starter Dakota Hudson. He gave up nine hits, two walks, and six earned runs though as he earned his third loss of the season, bringing him to 4-3.

Johan Oviedo pitched the eighth inning. He ended up giving up the game-winning run, a home run to Tommy Pham. T.J. McFarland worked the ninth inning, giving up a hit and bringing down his ERA to 7.83.  Really makes you wonder how much longer we will be seeing these two pitchers.

The Cardinals have a four-game series over the next three days with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With temperatures expected to be in the range of miserable, the Cardinals will need to keep cool and hydrated to be successful. Here’s hoping the Cardinals are successful.