Molina’s RBI caps rally as Cardinals stun Reds 5-4

Scoring five runs after being down to the final out, St. Louis stunned the Cincinnati Reds 5-4.

And then the man who started the inning, Yadier Molina, was hit by a pitch on the hip – an inside fastball. Instead of wincing, Molina pumped his fist and slid into first base. Manager Mike Matheny lifted him Saturday night after five innings, feeling Carpenter’s swing didn’t look right. “So he wasn’t concerned about being hit there”.

Molina singled to start the inning and was just at second with two outs when the fireworks started. In between, Matt Carpenter drove in two runs with a single and Brandon Moss tied it when he walked with the bases loaded.

“He made some great pitches especially when he had to”, Moss said of Reed. “And in the ninth inning we got a lot of pitches to do it with”.

Seth Maness (2-2) pitched a flawless ninth to earn the victory.

Rockies closer Carlos Estevez (2-7) blew a save for the second straight start and gave way to left-hander Boone Logan, who had held left-handed hitters to an average of.141 (11-for-78) with 27 strikeouts before Moreland connected. Cozart, who had two hits, scored when Joey Votto followed with a triple. Leake spent his first 5 1/2 major league seasons with the Reds, then finished previous year with the Giants. “It’s a miserable feeling but we’ve just got to come back tomorrow and win the game and get this feeling out of our system”.

Monday, though, he was as good as advertised, holding the Cardinals scoreless through six innings and almost earning his first career victory.

Encarnacion and Jose Bautista both had three RBIs as Toronto scored more than four runs for the first time since a 9-1 win over Baltimore on July 30.

“The catalysts really were three walks and two hit by pitches and we allowed them to get excited and their fans to get excited and we weren’t able to execute the pitches we needed to do to finish the inning”, manager Bryan Price said.

Then the St. Louis Cardinals, seemingly doomed to a third consecutive home defeat against a last-place team, started putting runners on and getting them home.

Danny Santana followed with a run-scoring single, and Minnesota won for the seventh time in nine games.

The Reds are 4-1 in Finnegan’s last five starts, 20-43 in their last 63 road games, and 7-15 in their last 22 Tuesday games while the Cards are 11-5 in their last 16 against a team with a losing record and 2-6 in their last eight overall.

Louis remains among the contenders for a National League wild-card spot, even though it trails Miami for the second wild-card spot by a half-game, pending the outcome of the Marlins’ game in Colorado.

Gomez, the former Twins outfielder, let Jorge Polanco’s single skip by him for a two-base error that allowed one run to score. Moreland sent Andrus home with a double before he was thrown out stretching at third. Texas has the highest team total at 5.3, but St. Louis (5.3), Milwaukee (5), Toronto (5), LA (4.9), all have fairly comparable projections.