The game ended with Adam Wainwright on the plate, who hit for a fellow pitcher but really came on for catcher Yadier Molina. The Cardinals backstop, who didn’t start the game, went to the batting cage to swing the bat for a late game and felt his neck lock up. He couldn’t let himself go enough and left the Cardinals only with pitchers for this seat. Wainwright, a former Silver Slugger Award, was a game for a good at-bat before Heath Hembree hit him to secure the save, Hembree’s seventh from a Reds bullpen riddled with injuries.
The Cardinals, back at .500, had a chance to overtake Cincinnati and advance to second in the National League Central Division at the end of a week that started fourth.
The Reds rallied to level the game in game eight against Ryan Helsley before putting together the winning rally with the help of a mistake, a call and a flyball in game nine.
Helsley, who has been successful at cleaning up messy innings lately, is tasked with maintaining the lead with two runs in the seventh, leaving singles on the first two strokes he faced. The first three bats of the inning hit the base even as Helsley was spinning his fastball to 100 mph. Eugenio Suarez’s double opened the inning by scoring the first batter and bringing Joey Votto to third. The former Reds MVP scored on Helsley’s wild pitch to tie the game 5-5.
In the eighth round, a ground ball against Giovanny Gallegos gave him the chance to start a double game that could possibly have got him out of the inning.
.jpeg?format=1500w "Keys for a Hoosier Upset of No. Eight Cincinnati — Hoosier Huddle")
