ST. LOUIS — The Cincinnati Reds won a challenge that took a Cardinals run off the board and created a double play where there was none. The Cardinals won a challenge that set up a two-run inning when it looked as if the inning was over.
In the end, all that really mattered was that the Cardinals overcame an early four-run hole dug by starter Miles Mikolas. Nolan Arenado, who the night before had blamed himself for a lot of the Cardinals’ inconsistent offensive showing, tripled home a run in a two-run sixth and, with a base open in the eighth, was allowed to hit — and hit he did.
Arenado lofted his 30th homer of the season, snapping a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning and providing 6-4 win over the Reds to even their showdown series at one game apiece before a paid house of 33,404 at Busch Stadium.
Paul Goldschmidt doubled to left center off Lucas Sims with one out in the eighth and moved up on Tyler O’Neill’s groundout. The Reds chose to pitch to Arenado and that decision proved not to be the right idea as Arenado jumped a 1-0 slider.
Alex Reyes gained his second relief win in three days and Giovanny Gallegos earned his third save of the week as the Cardinals moved two games behind Cincinnati in the National League wild-card chase.
Mikolas breezed through the first two innings, netting five ground-ball outs and he got two more in the third inning. But, with Tucker Barnhart at second and two outs, it all unraveled quickly.
Presumptive National League Rookie of the Year Jonathan India launched his 20th of the season 422 feet into the center-field greenery.
Former Cardinal Max Schrock kept the inning alive with a single to center and then Nick Castellanos ripped his 28th homer to left and it was 4-0. Mikolas has given up scoring innings of four, four and three in his past three starts.
Center fielder Harrison Bader ended the inning with a running catch on Joey Votto before banging into the right-center-field wall and then the Cardinals did some banging of their own in their third inning.
Paul DeJong, who had two career homers off Reds starter Luis Castillo, made it three with his 17th of the season, a leadoff drive to left center. Bader hustled a double on a hit to right and was sacrificed to third by Mikolas.
With the score 4-1, the Reds played their infield in and Tommy Edman lined a run-scoring hit past first baseman Votto. Goldschmidt bid for a hit up the middle but second baseman India, went to one knee behind the bag as he got to the ball, flipped to shortstop Jose Barrero, who flashed across the bag and caught Goldschmidt at first on the tail end of a rally-crunching double play.
The next double play the Cardinals hit into was even more of a killer. It took a run off the scoreboard in the fifth.
DeJong sliced a single to right for his second hit and his first multi-hit game since Aug. 20. Bader beat out a tapper and Matt Carpenter, nothing for his past 27, pinch hit for Mikolas, and hit a one-hop rocket to Votto. Votto fired to second to force Bader but Castillo was a bit late in covering the bag and couldn’t hang onto Barrero’s relay throw. When the ball rolled away, DeJong scored, in theory, and Carpenter ostensibly was safe at first.
But the Reds challenged that Bader hadn’t slid toward the bag even though it didn’t appear that he impeded Barrero. But the umpiring crew, through the replay process, backed up Bell’s view and Bader was called for interference. Carpenter thus was out at first and DeJong didn’t score.
Mikolas also is without a victory as a starter for exactly two years now, having won 10-3 at Colorado on Sept. 12, 2019 for his most recent triumph as a starter before he began encountering persistent arm problems.
Genesis Cabrera, who had been out five games with a finger nail issue, had a perfect sixth for the Cardinals. The Cardinals won a challenge with two outs in their sixth when Tyler O’Neill indeed was ruled to have beaten out a tapper to the right of the mound. Arenado then ended a nothing-for-15 swoon with a liner into the left-field corner. By the time Schrock, normally an infielder, had fished it out, O’Neill had scored to make it 4-3 on a triple by Arenado.
Dylan Carlson sent a blooper into center out of the reach of Barrero, who collided with center fielder Tyler Naquin, with the latter being knocked out of the game with bruised ribs as the Cardinals tied the score.
Cabrera polished off another perfect inning in the seventh. And Reyes, recast as a setup man, had an easy eighth, taking care of the top of the Reds’ lineup. New closer Gallegos, who has seven saves for the season, had a clean ninth, striking out two.
