CINCINNATI -- Momentum has found these Cardinals in the recent stretch of baseball, winners of five of their last six entering this weekend series in Ohio. The offense has upped its level from a horrid June. The defense has been there right in tow -- if not in a louder manner. Hitting streaks have been coronated, scoreless streaks accomplished and wins, most importantly, seized.

But momentum is fickle. It was in the Cardinals’ favor all of Friday night -- even in chances they didn’t cash in on. But then, quickly and quietly, it wasn’t, as the Cards lost, 6-5, to the Reds at Great American Ball Park and relinquished a chance to catapult into second place in the National League Central just six days after sitting in fourth.

• Box score

That’s because of missed scoring chances paired with two leaks in the bullpen, with Ryan Helsley hit around for two runs in the seventh and Giovanny Gallegos tagged for an unearned run in the eighth, allowing the go-ahead run to score on a sacrifice fly. That run was unearned because of an error committed by Gallegos.

Gallegos, rock-steady and dependable as he’s been all season, impressively fielded a chopper back to him and fired to Edmundo Sosa at second base, only to yank it just a tad too far up the third-base side.

“Had them where we wanted them late in the game,” said manager Mike Shildt. “They put together some at-bats, and we didn’t turn a double play that turned out pretty costly.”

The evening saw seven lead changes or ties, two from homers by Paul Goldschmidt and Harrison Bader, and one from what seemed poised to be a game-winning stroke by Andrew Knizner. The one lead change that mattered most, though, came off the bat of Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson.

Great American Ball Park was taken right along for the ride, featuring some slick outfield defense from the Cards, Tommy Edman taking the first right-handed swings of his career off a right-handed pitcher, a missed ball call flagged by the St. Louis dugout that resulted in a walk turning into a groundout and Adam Wainwright taking the final at-bat of the game, since Yadier Molina felt his neck tighten while taking swings in the batting cage.

And it came with an appropriate win probability chart along with it:

Key factors in the ride: The Cardinals stranded nine, went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position and failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the fifth and a two-on, no-out chance in the seventh.

The loss was not a be-all end-all for St. Louis, sensing all season long that its tenacity and ability to fight back when down will persist. But it did little to clarify its picture, now under a week to go until the July 30 Trade Deadline.

St. Louis has several options to consider. Take on the form of buyers or hold pat, knowing pitchers like Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas are nearing returns? Latch on to older, peripheral pieces or try to flip them for some young players? Make a splash move for a postseason run, or a pragmatic move for next season and beyond?

The Cardinals’ path to October is murky. They likely will have to leapfrog both the Reds (1 1/2 games back) and the Brewers (eight games back) to have any chance for the postseason, since the NL Wild Card appears a two-horse race among whichever duo loses out on the NL West.

They have the chance to do so, with six more series (19 combined games) against the two teams ahead of them, along with the two contests left in this set in Cincinnati.

“It’s nice to be able to bounce back and fight back when you get down a little bit and come back and we counterpunch,” said Knizner, making just his fifth start since the beginning of June. “I thought we did that pretty well tonight. We had some tough innings where they were able to get a couple guys across, but I thought we answered on the offensive side and took good at-bats all the way No. 1 through 9 today.

“Ball just didn’t bounce our way at the end, and that's the game, but I think that's a good sign going into the last few games of the series, when you come out ready to fight.”