Behind seven scoreless innings from starter Michael Wacha, the Cardinals claimed their second season series in Cincinnati by grabbing a 3-0 win in Thursday’s series finale at Great American Ball Park. With the win, the Cardinals climbed to 30 games above .500 for the first time this year.
Wacha extended his scoreless-innings streak to 14 while becoming the National League’s second 13-game winner. He scattered four hits, made his eighth seven-inning start of the season and didn’t allow the Reds to advance a runner into scoring position with fewer than two outs.
“It’s all about getting in that routine out there on the mound and getting in that rhythm,” said Wacha, who improved to 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA against the Reds this season. “I found it out there and was able to throw a lot of strikes and get a lot of early outs.”
Reds starter Michael Lorenzen labored through five innings, throwing 50 pitches over his final two frames. The Cardinals scored all three of their runs during that span, with RBI singles from reserve catcher Tony Cruz and second baseman Kolten Wong.
“Those are the challenges of young pitchers, is managing pitch counts,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “You can’t forget this is his second full year as a starting pitcher in professional baseball, and he’s pitching in the big leagues, so it’s easy to overlook the fact that he’s a very young and inexperienced pitcher.”
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