Perhaps searching for any reminder he could that his Reds players have to find some way — any way — to beat the Cardinals, manager Dusty Baker tried to paint the archnemesis as normal on Tuesday afternoon.
“You have to realize they put their pants on the same way we do,” Baker said.
That might be true, but by Tuesday evening, it was again clear who has been wearing the pants in the Reds-Cardinals relationship. St. Louis claimed a 6-1 victory over Cincinnati to ensure another series win with one game left.
As well as the Cardinals played to earn the win, the Reds certainly made numerous self-inflicted mistakes — at the plate, on the bases and on defense — to deserve the loss.
“We’ve just got to play better baseball,” Baker said after the game. “I’m really getting kind of tired of answering these questions every day for everything that happens and everybody. Sometimes a guy has to be held accountable for their actions. They’re all big boys. They’re all getting paid here. [The Cardinals] are beating us pretty good. We’ve got to change that.”
Since 2003, the Reds are now 3-25-2 in series played at Busch Stadium. In the 2013 season series, the Cardinals have won 10 of the 14 games while outscoring Cincinnati by a 95-49 margin overall.
A Pirates defeat gave the Cardinals a 1 1/2-game National League Central lead over Pittsburgh and a 4 1/2-game edge over the third-place Reds.
“It is frustrating, but they’re a good team and things aren’t falling for us as of late,” Reds starter Mat Latos said of the Cardinals.
Latos pitched better than his line reflected, with four runs and nine hits allowed over six-plus innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out four for only his second loss since the All-Star break. The right-hander also helped himself at the plate with two of the Reds’ eight hits.
It was a rocky beginning to Latos’ night as the first three batters he faced — Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran and Matt Holliday — all connected with singles. Carpenter scored on Holliday’s hit to right field, which brought Baker to the mound for a chat.
Responding well, Latos induced Allen Craig to bounce to the mound into a double play that scored a second run. After a Yadier Molina two-out single, Latos retired 13 of his next 14 hitters.
“Latos did his thing,” Baker said. “He threw the ball well. He got out of the first inning with minimum damage. He even helped himself at the plate. He had as good at-bats as anybody.”
Cincinnati, however, had oodles of opportunities go astray as at least two runners were left stranded in four of the first five innings.
One night after Joey Votto forgot how many outs there were in the field, another mental error came in the fourth inning on Tuesday and proved more detrimental.
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