ST. LOUIS _ In a result that was pretty predictable, the Cardinals kept their hot streak going at the expense of a pitcher who just can't win.
The Cardinals beat the Reds, 12-5, on Friday night at Busch Stadium for their fourth win in five games, their fifth win in seven games and their eighth win in 10 games. The Cardinals finished the month of August with a 22-6 record. Meanwhile, on the other side, Reds starter Homer Bailey suffered his eighth straight loss and fell to 1-13 on the season. In games he starts, the Reds are 1-18.
The Brewers won, so they stayed in step with the Cardinals in the wild-card race while pursuing Colorado is playing on the West Coast.
Austin Gomber got the win for the Cardinals, going seven innings when it looked like he might not get out of the first. The Reds got four straight hits off him with one out in the first inning and scored twice before he got the final two outs of the inning. The Reds got a runner on in each of the next five innings but couldn't score.
But as with John Gant on Thursday, when he hit a home run to tie the game, it was Gomber's bat that turned things around. The Cardinals had runners on first and third with two out in the second and Gomber, who came into the game hitting .125 at the plate. He hit a fly ball to center that a shallow playing Billy Hamilton couldn't get back on and it went over his head and to the wall for a double, driving in two runs and tying the game. Matt Carpenter followed with a home run down the right-field line, his 35th of the season to make it 4-2. The runs were all unearned because of an error by Eugenio Suarez on a sharp grounder by Paul DeJong to start the inning.
The Cardinals added three more in the third on a three-run home run by DeJong after singles by Jose Martinez and Matt Adams. Martinez went 2-for-2 with two walks as he raised his batting average to .314 in his pursuit of the National League batting title.
They needed them. Gomber went seven innings, allowing 10 hits but only two runs. He struck out three and walked none as he improved to 5-0. But the bullpen, which had sparkled on Thursday, had its issues on Friday, mostly in the person of Brett Cecil. He came on in relief and gave up a two-run homer to Scott Schebler in the eighth and followed that with a walk to Tucker Barnhart and a quick exit from the game. Jordan Hicks came in and gave up back-to-back singles, a sacrifice and a walk to load the bases. With the tying run on second, he went to a 3-2 count on Suarez before getting him to ground out to second.
And then they didn't need them, as the Cardinals scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth. Patrick Wisdom gave the Cardinals some breathing room with a home run to lead off the inning, his second home run in 13 games in the majors. A bases-loaded single by DeJong in the eighth drove in two more runs and gave him a career-high five runs batted in in the game. Yairo Munoz had a bases-loaded single to drive in two and the Reds brought in infielder Brandon Dixon to pitch to Wisdom. Dixon, throwing in the low-60s, got Wisdom on a fly ball to the warning track in right center.
