Sal Stewart delivered the swing Cincinnati needed, and the Reds rode it to a 5-4 win over St. Louis on Thursday.
The game was quiet early. Neither club managed a hit through the first two innings, and the first real opening came in the third when Blaze Jordan singled with one out.
JJ Wetherholt followed with a two-out double into right-center, and Jordan tried to score. But Dane Myers fired the ball back toward the infield, Elly De La Cruz turned and unleashed a laser of a relay to Jose Trevino, and Jordan was cut down by 10 feet to end the inning.
St. Louis finally broke through in the fourth.
Chase Burns walked Alec Burleson, then allowed a two-out single that brought in a run. Another walk followed, then another two-out single drove in a second run and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Burns escaped more trouble in the fifth, and Sam Moll handled the sixth. That set the stage for Cincinnati’s breakthrough, even though the offense still hadn’t shown much life.
The Reds picked up only their second hit of the day in the bottom of the sixth when Matt McLain ripped a one-out double. Two pitches later, Elly De La Cruz singled him to third, and Sal Stewart followed by crushing a go-ahead three-run homer off the batter’s eye in center.
From there, Cincinnati kept hanging on by its fingertips. Brock Burke walked two batters in the seventh but worked out of it while protecting the lead. Luis Mey dealt with a walk in the eighth, and then the Reds added some breathing room.
Jose Trevino opened the bottom of the eighth with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. McLain then laid down a bunt for a hit, but Blaze Jordan fielded it and threw into right field, allowing Trevino to score for a 4-2 cushion.
McLain stole second and advanced to third on a long fly out by De La Cruz. After an intentional walk to Stewart, Dane Myers made St.
Louis pay with an RBI bunt single when nobody covered first base.
Emilio Pagan took a 5-2 lead into the ninth, and that inning got messy fast. He hit the first batter, then got a fly out and a groundout on a broken bat.
Jordan Walker then launched a two-run homer into the seats in right field to trim it to one. Jose Fermin followed with a double into the left-field corner, putting the tying run in scoring position.
A wild pitch moved Fermin to third, but Pagan finished the job by fielding a chopper to third himself and firing a bullet to first for the final out.
The key swing was Stewart’s three-run homer, which came just minutes after Cincinnati had only one hit and little else going on at the plate.
McLain finished 3-for-3 with a double, a steal and two runs scored. The rest of the game featured just four hits combined.
Stewart’s homer also gave him 102 RBI for his career, making him the third quickest player in Reds history to reach 100 career RBI since it became an official stat in 1920.
Thursday August 19th, 12:40pm ET
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