From: John Kasupski on

I don't know if there are actually any females out there, lurking but too shy to
post along with the men, or not - but I'm going to say it anyway:

Ladies and gentlemen, your division-leading Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds took over the NL Central lead this afternoon with a 7-2 win over the
St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ballpark. The Reds' offense unloaded for
13 hits against Cardinals starter Brad Penny (L, 3-4), who left after five
innings with the Redbirds trailing 7-1, having already thrown 109 pitches. Scott
Rolen, a former Cardinal, hit a two-run opposite-field homer off Penny in the
second inning, his seventh of the year, and added an RBI single off the handle
of the bat in the fourth, right before Jonny Gomes plated the fourth Reds run
with a sac fly.

The Cardinals finally managed to get on the board against Reds' pitcher Bronson
Arroyo (W, 3-2) in the top of the fifth, loading the bases with nobody out but
having to settle for one run on a fielder's choice grounder.

The Reds promptly scored three more runs off Penny in the bottom of the inning
to break the game open on a bases-loaded, two-run single by Arroyo and an RBI
single by Orlando Cabrera.

Jason LaRue, a former Red, provided the final margin with a one-out solo homer
in the seventh, his first of the season. Arroyo got out of that inning with no
further damage, pitched a scoreless eighth despite allowing a two-out double to
Matt Holliday, then set the Cardinals down 1-2-3 in the ninth to record his
first complete game of the season, the tenth of his career, and the third by a
Reds' starter this season.

Albert Pujols was again a non-factor in the game, going 0-for-3 with a walk. The
Cardinals 2-3-4 hitters were a combined 1-for-11 and leadoff man Rasmus took the
0-for-4 collar. For the reds, everybody had at least one base hit except for
catcher Ryan Hanigan, with five players - Cabrera, Brandon Phillips, Rolen, Jay
Bruce, and Gomes - each getting two hits for Cinci.

Arroyo scattered seven hits, striking out four and walking three, and threw 108
pitches in sending the Cardinals to their ninth loss in their last twelve games.
The Reds have won seven of their last eighth, and haven't been in first place
this deep into a season since 2006.

Penny, whose 13 hits allowed were one shy of his career worst, had been 5-0 in
six career starts at GABP, allowing just eight earned runs. The reds' pitching
staff has a 1.88 ERA over the last eight games, and leads the major leagues in
runners going from first to third on a single. Their defense hasn't committed an
error in their last 11 games, their best such streak since 1997 when they played
errorless ball for 13 consecutive games.

The Cardinals had been in first place in the division since last July 31.

JK

From: John Kasupski on
On Sun, 16 May 2010 20:14:14 +0000, John Kasupski <w2pio(a)spamfilter.verizon.net>
wrote:

>Scott
>Rolen, a former Cardinal, hit a two-run opposite-field homer off Penny in the
>second inning, his seventh of the year, and added an RBI single off the handle
>of the bat in the fourth, right before Jonny Gomes plated the fourth Reds run
>with a sac fly.

Grr...

Reference to second inning should read "first inning" and reference to fourth
should read "third."

STL 000 010 100 - 2 7 0
CIN 202 030 00X - 7 13 0

WP: arroyo (3-2)
LP: Penny (3-4)

HR: STL - LaRue (1), CIN - Rolen (7)


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