CINCINNATI — The Cardinals rookie pitcher, 18 starts into his big-league career and aching for his first win, had the run support and the runway for milestone.
What he didn’t have was complete control.
Johan Oviedo ran out of pitches and latitude before he could qualify for a win Sunday and take a long-awaited personal token from the same game the Cardinals ended a more team-oriented drought. Nolan Arenado hit his 20th home run of the season and all three Cardinals outfielders homered, including two in the same seven-run inning. That was enough to overcome an early deficit, frustrations that became two ejections, and hold for a 10-6 victory against Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park.
The win ended a six-game losing streak to the Reds three months to the day of the Cardinals’ last victory against their division foe.
One hundred games into their season, the Cardinals sit at a descriptive 50-50.
Could go either way from here.
With the seven-run fourth inning as a tailwind, Oviedo pitched into the fifth with three outs to get and a potential win to pocket. A double and two walks later, and the righthander had only one of those three outs – a strikeout of former MVP Joey Votto. When he walked Tyler Naquin to load the bases, Oviedo had thrown 98 pitches and left the Cardinals no choice but replace him on the mound. Pitching coach Mike Maddux had visited him right before the at-bat against Votto and placed both hands on Oviedo’s shoulders, urging the righthander to get across the five-inning line needed to qualify for a win.
The six-run lead was intact when Oviedo handed the ball over after allowing three runs on five hits and six walks in 4 1/3 innings.
It remained that way as reliever Ryan Helsley retired two batters and left the bases loaded. It would take a similar escape in the eighth from setup man Giovanny Gallegos. The Reds nibbled away at the Cardinals’ lead and got the tying run on base when Votto walked to load them in the eighth. Gallegos walked Votto on four pitches as irritation with the strike zone continued to percolate on a sticky, humid, hot day along the Ohio River.
After another visit to the mound from Maddux, Gallegos got two popups caught in foul territory by the Cardinals’ two Gold Glove-winning corner infielders.
The Cardinals finally got the crescendo of offense they’ve been chasing at Great American Ball Park in the fourth inning against Reds righthander Sonny Gray.
Tyler O’Neill’s two-run homer to center field in the first inning was answered by Votto’s three-run homer off Oviedo in the bottom of the same inning. The scored remained fused there, 3-2, until the top of the fourth. The first five Cardinals reached base, and second half of the lineup had three consecutive extra-base hits against Gray. Tommy Edman started that run with an RBI double. He scored on Harrison Bader’s three-run homer.
The rally restarted then with Andrew Knizner’s double, and he scored on Dylan Carlson’s two-run homer down the right-field lineup. The homer was his 10th of the season.
That’s the thirst-most in the NL this season for a rookie.
Helsley got the win for his work out of the bases-loaded mess he inherited, and the Cardinals used six relievers to hold the lead through the 4 hour, 4 minute game.
What could have a leadoff single for Carlson in the fourth inning was instead the spark that got manager Mike Shildt ejected for the second time in as many series.
The play at first base on Carlson’s groundball appeared close, close enough to challenge, and that’s ultimately what Shildt attempted to do. He appeared to request a review from the umpires, but home plate umpire Chad Fairchild waved him off. It’s unclear if the umps felt Shildt took too long to make the challenge or exactly why Fairchild used the safe gesture. Shildt popped out of the dugout and engaged with crew chief Ron Kulpa, delaying the game by far more time than a replay would have caused.
Shildt returned to the dugout, as did Carlson, and when the top of the third was over, Shildt was back out on the field advocating – aggressively, that – on his team’s behalf to Kulpa and Fairchild. He motioned at one point to second-base umpire C.B. Bucknor, who drew the ire of both teams for his inventive strike zone Friday night. Exactly when in this conversation Shildt was ejected was not immediately clear, but he was – for the fourth time this season, ninth time in his career, and second time in the past week. He was ejected from Wednesday’s game for arguing that an umpire stole an at-bat with a poor strike call.
Both instances have involved Carlson.
The Cardinals’ frustration with the crew and specifically the strike zone boiled again the eighth inning when a full-count pitch arguably in the zone instead became a leadoff walk. That ended lefty Genesis Carbera’s game on the mound, and he had some parting words for Fairchild on his walk to the dugout. The home-plate umpire ejected him to assure he didn’t sit around to see how the inning unfolded.
