Cards tap Reds
in 10
yahoo sports
St. Louis Cardinals
second baseman Daniel Descalso, right, prepares to tag out Cincinnati
Reds’ Devin Mesoraco during the 10th inning. Photo Courstesy of yahoo
sports
ST. LOUIS- Rookie Matt Carpenter wanted to be up with the game on the
line for the St. Louis Cardinals and rookie manager Mike Matheny
obliged him.
Carpenter hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to give
the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday
night.
David Freese walked to lead off the inning off Sam LeCure (0-1). Tyler
Greene came in as a pinch-runner and advanced on a sacrifice by Yadier
Molina, the 37th of his career. After an intentional walk, left-handed
reliever Bill Bray entered and walked Daniel Descalso to load the bases.
That put the left-handed hitting Carpenter in against Bray.
‘’Statistically he’s been pretty good against lefties his whole career,
as short a career as it’s been,’’ Matheny said. ‘’I liked our odds with
him making something happen.’’
Carpenter, who returned to the bench after playing the last four games
for the injured Lance Berkman, made Matheny’s move pay off.
He and worked the count full before flying out to right field. Jay
Bruce’s throw home was unable to nab Greene. It was Carpenter’s 11th
RBI of the season.
‘’Bases loaded, chance to win a ballgame as a pinch-hitter, that’s a
situation you want to be in,’’ Carpenter said. ‘’I mean, my heart was
pumping a little bit. As a hitter, you dream of it. It’s a lot of fun,
and it’s lot more fun when you pull it off.
‘’With Tyler at third, you don’t have to crush it all the way to the
wall. Things are working out.’’
Carpenter is hitting .409 and came off a game Sunday where he had four
hits and five RBIs.
‘’It didn’t take a genius to watch a guy do what he did yesterday and
realize he’s pretty hot,’’ Matheny said, ‘’and then realizing their
move is to leave the lefty in and knowing the stats and knowing he hits
lefties well, it all played together pretty well.’’
The Cardinals scored the winning run without an official at-bat - a
walk, a sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk and a sacrifice fly.
That caught the eye of Cincinnati coach Dusty Baker.
‘’We’re playing just good enough to lose right now,’’ Baker said. ‘’We
just have to execute better. You practice and practice and preach and
talk about things, it’s just not happening.’’
Jason Motte (1-0) worked the 10th for St. Louis.
Cincinnati used two errors and a single for an unearned run to tie the
game at 1 in the eighth. Descalso let Ryan Hanigan’s grounder go
through his legs at second for an error. Reliever Mitchell Boggs
mishandled pinch-hitter Wilson Valdez’ sacrifice, allowing pinch-runner
Devin Mesoraco to reach second. Zach Cozart singled to right two outs
later to score Mesoraco.
Carlos Beltran gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead when he hit a first-inning
home run into the right-field bullpen.
‘’It was a slider. I tried to throw a strike and it just stayed high
for me,’’ said Reds starter Johnny Cueto, who pitched seven innings,
allowing seven hits. ‘’It was my fault. I should not do that.’’
Beltran, who also singled and walked, contributed a defensive gem in
the third inning. He cut down Drew Stubbs trying to go first to third
on a single with a one-hop throw to Freese from right field. Beltran
had 10 outfield assists last season.
St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse opened the game with 12 consecutive
strikes, and finished with seven scoreless innings. He allowed four
hits and struck out the side after a walk and a single in the fourth
inning.
‘’I had good location,’’ Lohse said. ‘’It’s not normal for me to strike
out three guys in a row but I hit my spots. It was good to get and keep
them to no runs.’’
Lohse, who threw 90 pitches, struck out six in dropping his ERA to 0.90
after three starts.
‘’It’s just a shame we couldn’t get him a ‘W’ out of that,’’ Matheny
said. ‘’He was terrific. That’s as good as you can ask for anybody.’’
After Cueto hit Molina to start the second inning, home plate umpire
Tony Randazzo immediately warned him and both benches. John Jay
followed with a single to center, but Cueto pitched out of the jam.
St. Louis stranded eight runners in the first four innings when Cueto
threw 79 pitches.
NOTES: It was the first extra-inning game of the season for St. Louis.
Cincinnati is 1-3 this season in extra frames. ... Berkman returned to
the St. Louis lineup after missing four games with a strained left calf
and Freese was back after missing two games with a sore finger on his
right hand. ... St. Louis has homered in each of the four games with
Cincinnati this season with a homer coming in the first inning in three
of the games. ... The Reds franchise remains two wins shy of 10,000 .
... MLB announced the draft order for the June 4 first-year player
draft Tuesday. Cincinnati will select 14th in the first round while St.
Louis will draft 19th and 23rd. The 19th selection if compensation for
the Los Angeles Angels signing Albert Pujols. The Cardinals have five
of the first 59 draft selections. ... Reds 3B Scott Rolen remains in
52nd place on the career doubles list, one behind Andre Dawson’s total
of 503.
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