Pitching? Hunter Greene continues to be a baseball artist, a baseball Rembrandt, Picasso and Monet. He is as smooth on the mound as a ballroom dancer.
He held the Cardinals to one run and four hits, with eight strikeouts over seven innings. He has given up six runs in his last eight starts.
“He’s a beast, he’s a beast,” said Jeimer Candelario of Greene during a post-game interview with Bally Sports Ohio after he contributed a two-run homer in the sixth that spread the Reds lead from 2-0 to 4-0.
“You give the ball to him every five days and he will put up some zeroes for us,” Candelario added. “He sets the tone. He has been unbelievable for us.”
It led to Cincinnati’s 12th win in their last 20, three in a row. The Cardinals are 10-14 since the All-Star break and the Reds have drawn to within one game behind St. Louis National League wild card standings. The Reds are four games behind the Braves for the third and final wild card spot.
And the Cardinals have fallen to .500 (60-60) while the Reds have crept to within two games of .500 (59-61).
Home runs? Greene received run supoort via a solo home run by Ty France and the two-run rip by Candelario, giving the Reds 22 home runs in their last 11 games.
Reds manager David Bell, a gambling man recently, played his cards differently again Tuesday.
On Monday, he benched slumping Jonathan India and put Spencer Steer at second base and at India’s leadoff spot.
Steer responded with two home runs and five RBI in a 6-1 victory. So did Bell use the same configuration?
He did not.
He put India back at second base and back in the leadoff spot. He went 0 for 4 and is 1 for his last 28.
He dropped Steer to fifth in the order and he singled home a run in the first inning to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.
Greene gave up a two-out double in the first to Willson Contreras, then retired Nolan Arenado. That began a string of 12 straight Cardinals retired through two outs in the fifth innng.
Then came a nine-pitch battle with Lars Nootbaar before Green walked hjm on a full count. And as he has done several times this season, Greene regurgitated on the mound and it knocked his equilibrium askew.
He threw back-to-back wild pitches that put Nootbaar on third with a 3-and-0 count on Nolan Gorman.
Showing his competitive and stubborn streak, he struck out Gorman. How did he compose himself?
“My mentality, being able to slow everything down and focus on the pitch I had to make,” he said. “I was able to do that. I knew the hitter, his strengths and weaknesses and knew the pitches I had to make. Then it was being able to locate.”
So does Greene feel as if he is the ace of the staff? Everybody else does.
“Yeah ... but that’s for other people to decide,” he said. “I’ve already made up my mind of being one. I feel my process has been solid and I’ve been as consistent as I can be. But there is still a lot of work to put in.”
The Reds were facing starter Erick Fedde, a pitcher the Cardinals acquired at the trade deadline from the forlorn Chicago White Sox, losers already of 91 games. Amazingly, Fedde was 7-3 with a 3.11 earned run average for the White Sox.
He retired India and Elly De La Cruz in the first inning, two outs nobody on, but Tyler Stephenson singled, TJ Friedl walked on a full count and the scorching hot Steer lobbed a run-scoring single to center.
Ty France led the second with a home run into the right field seats to make it 2-0. Friedl singled with one out in the sixth and with two outs Candelario drove his 19th homer into the right field seats for a 4-0 lead.
Greene’s only clear-cut mistake came on his first pitch of the seventh inning, a home run into the left field seats by Nolan Arenado.
Tony Santillan pitched a 1-2-3 eighth with a pair of strikeouts. Closer Alexis Diaz issued a two-out walk int the ninth but ended it by coaxing a ground ball from Arenado.
It was Diaz’s 17th straight save and his 23rd for the season.
“He’s a competitor, a guy always prepared for his role,” said Candelario about Diaz. “He is going to pound guys with his slider and his fastball and he knows he is going to close the game for us, for sure.”
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