The Cincinnati Reds have played in six baseball series since the All-Star break and have won all of them. This is not easy to do. In fact, if one is to believe what one reads on the interwebs, the Reds haven’t done it since 1999. Two of these past six series were against the San Francisco Giants and now the St. Louis Cardinals. Their record is 44-63. Since June 1, 27-28.
The new-and-improved Reds head out to Pittsburgh for a 3-game series, looking for seven in a row. Then on to St. Louis where they can do more damage to the Cardinals chances to make the postseason.
The Reds are just 14 games out of the second Wild Card slot. Stay tuned for the announcement about postseason tickets.
Cincinnati 7 • St. Louis 0 | FanGraphs | How to roast a cardinal
Brandon Finnegan threw 6 shutout innings, giving up just one hit and ZERO WALKS. He struck out four. Finnegan’s previous start against the Cardinals was one of his best. He gave up 5 hits and a walk, striking out 7 over 7 innings. “Brandon Finnegan isn’t throwing as hard as he did earlier in the year, but he is pitching much better,” opined Jeff Brantley. Finnegan threw 79 pitches. That’s two shutout starts in a row for the 23-year-old lefty.
[Using Raisel Iglesias for two innings in this game was suspect curious (“curious” chosen to keep good feelz going). Seems like that’s a product of braindead inflexible rule adherence rather than adapting to a situation. Will Iglesias be unavailable tomorrow night in Pittsburgh? In contrast, Iglesias wasn’t used in Tuesday night’s back-and-forth nail-biter. Is that because the Reds were tied, not ahead in the 7th inning? And then ahead, but with only one inning to go, not two, in the 8th? Oy. Please tell me that Raisel Iglesias isn’t going to pitch only when the Reds are ahead in the 7th inning, and always for at least two innings.]
The Reds took a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning when Ramon Cabrera grounded into right field through a pulled-in infield, driving in Brandon Phillips who had singled and Scott Schebler who had doubled. The third run scored in the 4th inning on a sac fly by Eugenio Suarez, driving in Brandon Phillips, who had doubled.
The 6th inning began with Mike Leake walking Adam Duvall. Leake had gone 35 innings without giving up a walk. Did you know that Mike Leake used to play for the Reds? And that Leake was traded for Duvall? Anyhow, Duvall was driven in by Brandon Phillips, who doubled. Leake then hit Scott Schebler. Eugenio Suarez doubled, driving in Phillips. The score was 5-0. The route was on. Ramon Cabrera greeted Cardinals reliever Seth Maness with a single, driving in Schebler. Suarez scored when Tyler Holt hit into a double play. 7-0.
The Cardinals put up the white flag an inning later with team-wide substitutions. Glorious submission. Pennant waving and other celebration ensued.