With his first career hit off reliever Trevor Rosenthal, Joey Votto followed the Reds’ climb out of a four-run hole with a go-ahead RBI single as Cincinnati stunned the Cardinals with a 5-4 win that salvaged a split of the rain-shortened series at Busch Stadium.
After allowing a sixth-inning run, Cardinals starter Mike Leake exited in position to earn his first career win over the Reds. But that’ll have to wait for another day. The Reds erased the Cardinals’ 4-1 lead by scoring three runs with two out in the seventh. Then they finished the comeback against Rosenthal, who couldn’t wiggle out of a bases-loaded, no-out mess unscathed.
“We make a big deal when we come back from a 4-0 deficit, and I think the same thing [has to be] said on the opposite side when you lose a 4-0 lead,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “Those hurt. This is one of those games that we’re going to look at and realize we need to put away.”
The Reds opened the eighth with a single sandwiched between two walks, and Votto’s sharp single up the middle brought in the go-ahead run. Votto had been 0-for-5 previously against the Cardinals’ former closer. The Reds finished the game with a season-high 16 hits, 11 of which came over the final four innings.
“The guys battled back,” Reds starter Bronson Arroyo said. “A win is a win is a win right now, because we’re having a hard time putting two and three together. So just to get one to get out of here is nice.”
The bullpen blip cost the Cardinals what would have been their 10th victory in 12 games. They still finish April at .500 — despite opening the year at 3-9 — but wasted another quality start from Leake and a big day from Matt Carpenter, whose bases-clearing double chased Arroyo with no outs in the fifth.
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