Stuart Fairchild of the Cincinnati Reds hits an RBI single during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Cincinnati, Thursday, May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)
CINCINNATI (AP) — Nolan Gorman hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning and scored on a wild pitch, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 Thursday for their 13th victory in 18 games. .
Miles Mikolas (3-1) won his third straight decision, allowing five hits in seven scoreless innings, matching his season high. He struck out five and didn’t walk.
“Just focusing on keeping the ball down,” Mikolas said. “That is what allows me to delve into ball games. I feel like I didn’t really wake up and find my best fastball until about the third inning. I think he had pretty good command from the start.”
Giovany Gallegos allowed a two-out RBI single to Stuart Fairchild in the ninth before striking out Luke Maile for his fifth save in six chances.
St. Louis (23-29), rebounding after a 10-24 start, gave All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras the afternoon off and still won a split-four series games.
“We weren’t using them. They had a full day off,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “They deserve it. Other guys stepped up and it worked.”
Cincinnati, last in the NL Central at 21-29, has lost seven of 10.
Tommy Edman, a switch-hitter, hit from the right side against right-hander Luke Weaver. Edman grounded out in the second and received a called third strike in the fifth from Weaver. Edman also hit right-handed Tuesday against right-hander Graham Ashcraft and Wednesday against right-hander Ben Lively.
He turned and hit left-handed in the seventh against right-handed reliever Lucas Sims (1-1), striking out, and lined out right-handed against right-handed Alan Busenitz in the ninth. Edman is 5-for-17 (.294) hitting right-handed against right-handed this season.
Edman started hitting right-handed against certain pitchers about two years ago.
Weaver allowed three hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
“Everything has felt great on my outings,” he said. “There have been innings where I’ve gotten a little careless. My change has been frustrating me a bit. I put some work on it this week to modify it. Today it came to life. I have swings and misses. It was competitive.”
He was selected 27th overall by the Cardinals in the 2014 amateur draft.
“I haven’t faced the Cardinals since they traded me,” Weaver said. “There’s only a few guys left there, but yeah, you want to pitch well against them and be competitive.”
TJ Friedl, activated from the 10-day disabled list Tuesday, singled leading off the sixth and was thrown out at the plate trying to score from third on Jonathan India’s groundout to third baseman Brendan Donovan.
St. Louis took the lead in the eighth when Lars Nootbaar hit a two-out single, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Gorman’s liner down the right-field line that extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games ( 20 of 54, .370 ). Gorman scored on the second wild pitch of Sims’ inning.
“He’s been hitting no matter the situation,” Marmol said. “He’s not removing any pitches. That was a big hit for him there. He runs to those kinds of scenarios where he likes to be counted on.”
WEB GEMS
Juan Yepez made a sliding catch off Maile’s plunging line drive in the fifth and Fairchild made a jumping catch off the right-field wall to rob Paul DeJong of extra bases early in the seventh.
FALLING STARS
Contreras is hitless in 19 at-bats Arenado is hitless in 10.
STAY WARM
Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer went 2-for-4 and extended his career-best hitting streak to eight games (14-of-34).
COACHES ROOM
Cardinals: Yepez was hit in the left shoulder by a changeup from Weaver in the seventh. He stayed in the game.
Reds: RHP Connor Overton had Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, manager David Bell said. Overton is scheduled to return Friday to the team’s training complex in Goodyear, Arizona, where he had been training before the procedure.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Cardinals: LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-0) will start Friday’s series opener at Cleveland in his second start and third appearance this season.
Reds: RHP Hunter Greene (0-4) will be on the mound for Friday’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs.
