This weekend was a series that the Cardinals certainly needed to win more than the Reds. But any added breathing room would have been welcomed as Cincinnati drags through the dog days of August.
The Reds missed a chance to put more distance between themselves and the second-place Cardinals in an 8-2 loss on Sunday at Great American Ball Park. St. Louis won two out of three in the series and leaves town six games back in the National League Central.
“To deny that it doesn’t mean more inside the division is not true,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “We know it means more, but we know too, if we’re going to be consistent we’ve got to have that kind of approach from here on out.”
Cincinnati, which has 33 games left to play, remains in an enviable position. Since the All-Star break, it has only dropped two series (9-2-2).
“Six games is a substantial amount of games this late in the season,” first baseman Todd Frazier said. “We still have a month to go. I’m just glad we’re up six games. We have nothing to worry about. We’re just going keep chugging and keep winning games and focus on those W’s. We’re going to lose some games. We can’t win them all. It just happened to be today.”
The Cardinals, which have won five of six games and seven of their last nine, encountered a Reds team running on fumes. By the time they finish the next series in Arizona on Wednesday, the Reds will have played 34 games over 34 days with only one off-day.
Included in that stretch was a doubleheader, a tough trip to Philadelphia and the entire stretch was without the long-injured Joey Votto. That could end as soon as next week, when Votto might return from a brief rehab assignment for next weekend’s series in Houston.
After the pitching staff gave up a season-high 17 hits to the Cardinals on Sunday, the bullpen could especially use a chance to regroup.
“It’s been a tough stretch for us,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We’ve got three more days and then we have an off-day. We’ve had two days off since the All-Star break. We just have to push and push these next three days until we’re off.”
Reds starter Homer Bailey gave up five runs and nine hits over six innings and struck out three. Five of the nine hits off of Bailey came with two strikes, and he departed trailing, 5-0.
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