By MATT PIKE
Willson Contreras and Pedro Pagés homered to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the skidding Cincinnati Reds 4-2 on Saturday night at Busch Stadium, giving the Cardinals a third win in a row, and securing a series win.
The Reds took a 1-0 lead in the first when Elly De La Cruz singled and scored on Gavin Lux’s double. Reds starter Andrew Abbott issued two walks and hit a batter with a pitch, loading the bases with two outs in the fourth inning and Nathan Church’s two-run single put the Cardinals ahead 2-1.
Contreras connected off Connor Phillips to make it 3-1 in the seventh inning with his 20th home run of the season. Matt McLain hit a solo homer for the Reds in the seventh, his first since July 18 against the Mets at Citi Field, to cut the Cardinals lead back to one, before In the very next inning, Pagés’ hit his 11th home run of the season off reliever Zach Maxwell for the final run of the game.
Michael McGreevy pitched six strong innings for the Cardinals, earning the win and improving to 6-2 on the season, allowing one run and five hits with two walks and no strikeouts. At the plate, Lars Nootbaar led going 2-for-5 with a double. Contreras was 1-for-4 with a walk, the home run and one RBI.
St. Louis and Cincinnati wrap up their series on Sunday. Andre Pallante (6-12, 5.44 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Brady Singer (11-9, 4.06) for the Reds. First pitch is at 11:10am, with coverage being joined at 11 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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