A day after nabbing sole possession of the second National League Wild Card spot, the Cardinals hardly asserted themselves as a ready postseason participant while wrapping up a 10-game road trip. Instead, they succumbed quietly in the rubber game of a three-game set in Cincinnati, where the Reds knocked around Mike Leake and rode six scoreless innings from Brandon Finnegan to roll to a 7-0 victory on Thursday afternoon.
Finnegan held the Cardinals to two hits — both singles — before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth. It was the second consecutive six-inning start with no runs allowed for Finnegan, who improved his season record to 7-8 with his second career victory over the Cardinals.
“I know I didn’t have my best, but I was commanding the ball well,” Finnegan said. “Even when you don’t have your good stuff, that’s the key, that’s been the key for me all year, is to command all my pitches. And they hit some balls hard, but we had guys right there to catch them. Without the defense, I’d be pretty bad today.”
He had more than ample support from an offense that was keyed by the bottom half of the order. Brandon Phillips tallied three hits from the fifth spot and scored after each as the three spots behind him combined to go 5-for-10 with five RBIs. Eugenio Surarez drove in two, and Ramon Cabrera had the first three-RBI game of his career.
With the loss, the Cardinals fell back into a tie with the Marlins for the second Wild Card position. The Dodgers sit 2 1/2 games ahead of both clubs in that race. The Cardinals now trail the Cubs by a 9 1/2-game margin in the NL Central.
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