ST. LOUIS -- Already the last team to steal a series victory from the Cardinals, the Reds swooped into Busch Stadium and interrupted momentum again this weekend. After twirling a shutout on Saturday, Cincinnati's dramatic ninth-inning stand and 10th-inning blasts sent the Cardinals to a 6-4 loss that dropped them from the top spot in the National League Wild Card standings.
With four weeks remaining on the season, the Cardinals trail the Brewers by a half-game in that race and the Cubs by 5 1/2 in the NL Central. St. Louis' run of 10 straight series victories also came to an end as the club lost consecutive games for the first time since July 22-23.
"We weren't able to execute our situational hitting where we wanted tonight," manager Mike Shildt said. "It's been a strength of our club, and we expect it to be a strength of our club. We can't overreact to [three] at-bats."
Those three at-bats came sequentially in the ninth and appeared poised to lift the Cardinals to their 11th walkoff win of the year. After Harrison Bader's hustle helped the Cards tie the game in the eighth, they loaded the bases against Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen. Three batters had an opportunity to drive in the winning run. None could.
Jose Martinez struck out for the seventh time in nine at-bats. The Reds, playing with a five-man infield, turned Marcell Ozuna's grounder into a forceout at home. Paul DeJong popped out to end the inning.
"It's one of those times you dream about as a kid," Lorenzen said. "It was just one of those times where you step up to the moment and rise or get eaten alive. I wasn't going to get eaten alive."
It was one of five instances Sunday in which the Cards stranded multiple baserunners. A lineup that, even with Ozuna's return from the disabled list, is still without two everyday players finished 4-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
"Going into the [ninth] inning, if you'd have asked me if we'd have won the game with Jose and Ozuna getting three-RBI chances, bases loaded, I would have taken that bet every day," DeJong said. "That's how it goes. I thought we missed a lot of chances early, so it wasn't necessarily just that inning."
The momentum shift was complete when Eugenio Suarez and Brandon Dixon connected for back-to-back home runs off Bud Norris the following inning.
"I don't have much to say," Norris said afterward. "I didn't execute pitches."
The chance to make a late offensive push was made possible by a stalwart effort from the first four relievers that followed a wobbly performance by Luke Weaver. They covered five innings, allowing one run on two hits, to help force extra innings.
Weaver, making his first start since Aug. 16, searched for his mechanics early and nearly exited without finishing the first. But with the Cardinals' bullpen thinned by Tyson Ross' usage one night earlier, Weaver enjoyed a little longer leash.
He used it to close a 40-pitch first inning with a bases-loaded double play, then wiggled out of another bases-loaded mess in the second. Weaver limited the Reds to one baserunner over his final two innings to close an 83-pitch effort, in which he walked five.
"I knew where I was at and after two innings, [my pitch count] was pretty stinking high," Weaver said. "That's why I had that moment of, 'You need to do this for your team right now. Start over. Go out there. Do your thing.' Just to try to pick the team up, especially in that moment, was all I was focused on."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Norris acknowledged to feeling a bit rusty when he entered on four days' rest, and it showed. He walked Joey Votto to open the 10th, and, for the first time since August 2017, served up multiple homers in a game. The three runs also represented a season high for Norris. It marked the fifth time in franchise history that the Cardinals had been stung by back-to-back homers in extra innings.
"Mechanically, I didn't feel where I wanted to be," Norris said. "The fastball was running on me. I made some mistakes. They hit it."
The Cardinals countered by getting the potential game-winning run to the plate in the bottom half of the 10th, but Francisco Pena, who had entered in the ninth, flied out to end the game.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
After loading the bases against Jared Hughes in the eighth, the Cardinals needed Bader's fleet feet to extend the inning and push in the tying run. What would have been a routine grounder to short for most defenses turned into an infield single for Bader, who, according to Statcast™, raced from home to first in 4.17 seconds. Bader hit an elite sprint speed of 31.3 feet per second on the hustle. That was even a tick better than his season average sprint speed of 30 feet per second, which is the seventh-highest in the Majors.
HE SAID IT
"I think what we're seeing is he's human. Just expanding the zone, maybe trying to do a little too much. But again, this guy is one of the top hitters in the league, so there is going to be a low patch there periodically, and maybe he's going through that patch. He'll be just fine. We'll take him up there tomorrow in the same situation. I'll tell you that." -- Shildt, on Martinez's four-strikeout day
UP NEXT
A marquee matchup between two of the National League's top starters -- Jack Flaherty (8-6, 2.87 ERA) and Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.22) -- will highlight the Cardinals' series opener against Washington on Monday. First pitch from Nationals Park is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. CT. Flaherty is coming off a month in which he went 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA, racking up 38 strikeouts over 32 innings.