CINCINNATI _ Joey Votto did in the ninth inning what the Cardinals could not, and for once the Reds didn't have to answer, just walk off.
Votto laced an RBI single to right-center field to drive home the winning run for a 4-3 walk-off victory Wednesday at Great American Ball Park. Votto's single came with Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos ahead 0-2 after getting Votto to foul off the first two pitches he saw in the at-bat.
The hit by the former MVP allowed the Reds to avoid a series sweep.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Cardinals had a chance to give Gallegos a lead to secure instead of a tie game to hold. The Reds opted to walk Matt Carpenter and load the bases for the back end of the lineup and outfielders Tyler O'Neill and Lane Thomas. With their prominence in the outfield likely increased by Dexter Fowler's absence, both outfielders had a chance to change the game for the Cardinals.
Both struck out.
The Cardinals called out a lead with a home run in two innings and the Reds responded immediately each time. Brad Miller's third homer in two days put the Cardinals ahead 1-0. The Reds tied the game on a two-out single. Yadier Molina, who enjoys the razzing he gets from the Cincy Faithful in normal years, does what he does at GABP and hit a home run to seats atop the left-field wall.
That put the Cardinals ahead 2-1, and Kolten Wong followed with an RBI double to extend the lead 3-1 in the top of the fifth.
The Reds had a response in the bottom of the fifth.
No. 9 hitter, Tucker Barnhart, hit a two-run homer off rookie Johan Oviedo to chase the rookie from his start before the end of the fifth inning. That knotted the game, 3-3.
Oviedo pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits and a walk. He also displayed the kind of stuff that is going to keep him in the rotation with five strikeouts. Oviedo got the Reds' top two hitters on fastballs in the third inning. Votto swung over a 95.3-mph fastball, and Nicholas Castellanos took a 95.6-mph fastball for a called strike 3.
In the fourth, Oviedo struck out Mike Moustakas on a 85-mph slider.
