ST. LOUIS -- With the Cardinals closing in on a sweep of the Reds on Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium, it felt like the team was just a swing away from being able to find an opening in a tie game.
As it turned out, the key swing wasn’t a swing at all.
Instead, it was a bunt by Victor Scott II that helped propel the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory.
Scott’s left-on-left numbers have been a strength to this point in the season, but after José Fermín and Nelson Velázquez led off the bottom of the eighth inning with back to back singles, the situation called for the Cardinals' center fielder to lay one down.
Scott dropped the bunt into the Bermuda Triangle of the infield grass with just enough authority to nudge Reds reliever Sam Moll into a bold idea -- he aimed to get the lead runner at third base.
But after Moll was the goat in Lars Nootbaar’s hero story on Saturday, it happened to him again on Sunday. Moll’s throw sailed on Reds third baseman Sal Stewart, down the left-field line to allow the go-ahead Cardinal run to score. Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his second save in as many days, securing the sweep over the Reds.
With six innings pitched and only those two runs permitted, starter Michael McGreevy navigated a quality start for the eighth time in 13 starts this season.
Cardinals utilityman Bryan Torres got the start in left field Sunday, and carried his apparent joy in facing the Reds into the day’s action. Both of Torres’ career home runs have come against Cincinnati after he launched a go-ahead blast as part of a three-run bottom of the fifth.