ST. LOUIS — Tommy Edman, who uncharacteristically had grounded into a double play to snuff out a Cardinals rally in the seventh inning, got another chance in the ninth Saturday.
Needing only a single to tie the score, Edman went big, cracking a two-run, game-ending home run off Joel Kuhnel to enable the Cardinals to overcome the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4, at Busch Stadium before a huge crowd of 43,832.
The home run was the first by either the Cardinals or Cincinnati in five games played between the two teams this year. Juan Yepez, replacing Harrison Bader, who had been benched for lack of effort in running out a fly ball, had singled with two out and pinch runner Edmundo Sosa had moved up on a wild pick-off throw to give Edman an opportunity after Yadier Molina had grounded into a double play
Adam Wainwright’s dismal 10-16 career record against Cincinnati is something of a mystery in that much of this damage has been done in the supposedly more friendly confines of Busch Stadium rather than Great American Ballpark.
Wainwright is 98-48 with a 2.67 earned run average at Busch against all teams not named the Redlegs. After a no-decision against the Reds, Wainwright is 3-8 against Cincinnati at Busch III with a whopping earned run average of 5.27.
It turned out to be a centerpiece moment for Wainwright and catcher Molina, who teamed as a starting battery for the 316th time, tying Milwaukee Braves Warren Spahn and Del Crandall for second all time, eight behind Detroit’s Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan. Wainwright blanked the Reds in six of the seven innings he pitched, being tagged for three runs in the third.
Wainwright, who didn’t strike out any Chicago Cubs hitters over seven innings in his last start after fanning 10 in seven innings against San Diego in the start before, fanned seven and walked one on Saturday.
Tyler O'Neill, who had had the past six Cardinals runs batted in over four games, drove in three on Saturday but was caught stealing third in the eighth inning with the Cardinals down a run.
The Cardinals had the first scoring chance in the second when Nolan Arenado doubled past third. But Arenado didn’t advance past second. O’Neill struck out against Hunter Greene. Brendan Donovan walked but Dylan Carlson and Molina both flied to left.
But Wainwright hung a couple of curveballs in the third, including one to former teammate Tommy Pham, whose two-run double left gave him five hits in nine at-bats against Wainwright. Wainwright struck out Joey Votto for the second time but Kyle Farmer laced another curveball for a run-scoring single to left and the Reds had a 3-0 lead.
Wainwright had only himself to blame for the start of the inning. Facing backup catcher Chris Okey, who was batting for the first time in the majors, Wainwright got ahead at 0-2 in the count and then hit Okey in the back. After Nick Senzel flied out, Brandon Drury, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, doubled to left.
From the fourth through the seventh, Wainwright regained his groove, stranding runners in scoring position in both the fourth and fifth and working a perfect sixth and seventh
The Cardinals, who had scored just seven runs in regulation innings over the past four games, did little or nothing for the first five innings with fire-balling Reds rookie Greene. Arenado’s second-inning double was their only dent against the right-hander.
In their first crack at Greene on April 22 in Cincinnati, the Cardinals had chased Greene in the fourth inning after the 22-year-old, who routinely touches the high 90s and often has gone into triple digits with his fastball, had walked four hitters.
Greene entered the game having retired the final 20 men he faced in a game against Arizona on Monday and a couple of weeks before, he threw 7 1/3 no-hit innings in a 1-0 loss at Pittsburgh.
It appeared the Cardinals’ best chance — perhaps only chance — was to get into the Reds’ bullpen. That they did in the sixth inning after Edman opened with a single off Greene’s foot and then Greene hit Nolan Gorman in the foot with a pitch.
Greene was at 101 pitches and right-hander Alexis Diaz relieved to retire Paul Goldschmidt on a fly to right but wild-pitched the runners to second and third. Arenado walked on four pitches and O’Neill took a shot at a grand slam but center fielder Senzel jumped against the center-field wall to pull the ball in. An extra-base hit that would have scored several runs became a sacrifice fly. Donovan grounded sharply to second to end the inning.
The Cardinals threatened in the eighth when Dylan Carlson reached second on an infield hit and a throwing error by second baseman Alejo Lopez. Carlson ran into first baseman Colin Moran, who was stretching for a throw. Moran, knocked down, had to come out of the game. Carlson had a gash on his chin attended to.
Carlson moved to third on Molina’s groundout and Reds manager David Bell, whose bullpen is suspect, brought his infield in even though the Reds were two runs ahead.
Yepez walked and Bell then moved his second baseman and shortstop back into double-play position. This is precisely what happened as Luis Cessa induced Edman to bounce to shortstop Farmer, who stepped on second and fired to first.
The Reds then increased their lead to three runs again in the eighth when Farmer singled for the fourth consecutive time and came around to score on singles by Matt Reynolds and Lopez off Drew VerHagen.
But O’Neill doubled into the left-center-field gap to cut the margin to 4-3 in the eighth. Gorman was hit for the second time, this time by Hunter Strickland, and Arenado singled ahead of O’Neill’s two-base hit.
Kuhnel relieved and O’Neill, who may have been armed with some sort of intelligence, took off for third with one out. But Kuhnel stepped off the rubber and threw to third, where O’Neill was tagged out to end the rally. Donovan officially ended it by lining out.
