When the rain subsided, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny had to replace Flaherty and when he goes to his bullpen, the stadium quickly becomes a disaster area.
Matheny put Mike Mayers into the game for the sixth and the Reds scored a run on back-to-back doubles by Joey Votto and Scooter Gennett.
The Cardinals still led, 2-1, when the seventh began. Matheny put in his flame-thrower, Jordan Hicks. His fastball averages 101 miles an hour and he has thrown more than 300 pitches above 100 miles an hour.
The Reds treated him like he was throwing slow-pitch softball. He retired only one batter and gave up four runs, four hits, a walk and a hit batsman.
It began when his first pitch, a 101 mph fastball, crashed into the rib cage of pinch-hitter Dilson Herrera, who didn’t even rub it as he trotted to first base. Then he walked Billy Hamilton on four pitches.
Adam Duvall blooped a single to shallow right field to load the bases with no outs. Jose Peraza smashed back to the mound off Hicks’ hand and it rolled away from him for a run-scoring infield single and it was tied, 2-2.
With the bases still loaded, Hicks caught Joey Votto looking at strike three on a full count.
Scooter Gennett wasn’t about to let that happen. Gennett yanked a 101 mph 0-for-2 fastball into right field for the go-ahead run, a 3-2 lead. Gennett continued to lead the National League with a .328 batting average.
Eugenio Suarez ended Hicks’ nightmarish afternoon with a two-run single to left field, Suarez’s league-leading 71st RBIs of the season and gave the Reds a 5-2 lead.
The Reds continued to add on with two runs in the eighth on Joey Votto’s two-run bases-loaded single and one in the ninth on Jose Peraza’s base loaded infield hit. Amazingly, Peraza had five hits with four never leaving the infield and the other was a blooper.
The Reds batted nine times with the bases loaded and had six hits and seven RBIs. Votto batted with the bases loaded three consecutive times.
After getting no runs and two hits off starter Flaherty in the first five innings, the Reds ravaged the St. Louis bullpen for eight runs and 12 hits over the last four innings. They were 8-for-20 with runners in scoring position.
On the other side, Reds starter Luis Castillo gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Matt Carpenter, and the Cardinal had two runs and five hits off him in five innings.
Unlike the Cardinals bullpen, the Reds bullpen was untouchable after the two-hour rain delay — four innings, no runs, five hits.
On the down side, right fielder Scott Schebler left the game in the sixth inning with a shoulder injury.
The Reds trailed, 2-1, and the Cardinals had a runner on second with one out. Yadier Molina drilled one to deep right and Schebler snagged it on the run. But he smashed into the wall after the catch and collapsed to the ground. He had the wherewithal to flip the baseball to center fielder Billy Hamilton, standing close by. The runner took third but would have scored from second if Schebler had not relayed the ball to Hamilton.
In addition to Peraza’s five hits and two RBI, Gennett had two hits and two RBIs and Votto had two hits and two RBI.
After losing their first nine of the season to the Cardinals, the Reds have won three straight, including the first two of this three-game series. Cincinnati is 21-9 in their last 30 games, best record in the National League in that span. After falling 17 games under .500 on May 4, the Reds are now only nine games under .500 at 43-52.
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