Cincinnati Drops Game Two vs. St. Louis 6-3

May 24, 2014; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Sean Marshall walks off the field at the end of the eighth inning during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park. The Cardinals won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

CINCINNATI- Jaime Garcia owns the Reds.

That, of course, is no sentence that any Reds fan would ever like to read, but it’s also an unavoidable reality for Cincinnati fans as they wake up this Sunday. Garcia is now 10-2 against the Cincinnati Reds, Garcia’s best mark against any team in the Majors. The final game of the series now hangs in the balance, and a lot of fans are looking for answers after last night’s mishap.

Garcia earned his first win of the season in the nationally-televised game on a night that he truly took over for St. Louis. While he rarely showed any signs of being unsure, Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia earned his 40th career win. He was able to strike-out 7 batters over the course of the game, and his 5 and two-thirds innings proved to be very effective against Cincinnati. Garcia even retired twelve straight batters for a stretch, before Brayan Pena was able to respond by snapping the streak with a fifth-inning double.

In the end, St. Louis proved to be too much for the Reds in front of a near-capacity crowd. Yadier Molina crushed his fifth home run of the season in the Reds loss; a 406 ft. bomb in the 4th inning against Tony Cingrani.

Peter Bourjos for the St. Louis Cardinals was eliminated from the starting lineup less than thirty minutes before the game, giving Jon Jay a chance  to step up as a starter. He did not disappoint Cardinals fans as he ended the game on Saturday 3 for 4 from the eight spot in the lineup.

The Reds left eight runners on base, they continued their struggles Saturday night in that particular department.

Tony Cingrani earned the start for Cincinnati, he would end his night with six innings pitched, seven hits, three walks, and four earned runs. In relief, the Reds used JJ Hoover, (who found a decent inning in which he allowed one hit and no earned runs), Logan Ondrusek (whom the Cardinals were able to score two against, while #66 was only able to create one out), Sean Marshall (who gave up two hits in the rocky 8th inning, but also had two strikeouts, no earned runs and got the Reds out of the jam) and Sam LeCure (one hit and no earned runs in the ninth inning).

The Reds did show signs of improvement in the loss however.

Zach Cozart was able to smack a fifth-inning single that made the game 2-1, following Molina’s homer, but that was as close as the Reds would get.

A Phillips double off of the wall scored Chris Heisey in the sixth, right after Heisey also doubled off of the wall. Jon Jay and Matt Adams each had RBI in the eighth, ultimately extending the St. Louis lead to 6-2.

Ryan Ludwick hit a solo bomb in the ninth inning that looked to potentially spark a comeback for Cincinnati, but the rest of the lineup was not dialed in enough for a comeback, apparently.

The Reds fall to 22-25 on the season, wasting a huge opportunity to advance in the standings. 1st-place Milwaukee (29-21, 5.5 games ahead of Cincinnati) lost to Miami, 2-1.

Sunday night’s series wrap-up will see Mike Leake (2-3, 2.91 ERA) take on Adam Wainwright (7-2, 1.85 ERA, 1.0 ERA in May). Wainwright is coming off of a 9K, one-hit wonder against the Diamondbacks, while Leake will look to improve on his first win since April 15th (a 7-5 win over Pittsburgh), which came in a 4-3 May 19th win over Leake’s former teammate, Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals. Game time is 8:00pm.

TV: ESPN

Radio: 700 WLW