ST. LOUIS _ The Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2, before a crowd of 45,701 Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Held without a hit and limited to just one baserunner through the game's first three innings, the Cardinals jumped to a 2-0 lead in the fourth. With one out, Paul DeJong doubled down the left-field line and Marcell Ozuna followed with a four-pitch walk.
A single down the right-field line from Jose Martinez made it 1-0. Yadier Molina followed with a sacrifice fly to right, pushing the home team's lead to 2-0.
In the ninth, the Cardinals seemed to pull away, getting a two-run single from Molina and a run-scoring hit from Dexter Fowler to go up 5-0.
The Reds got two runs in the top of the ninth. Jesse Winker doubled to lead off, Jose Iglesias singled with two outs and Scott Shebler followed with a two-run double down the right-field line off reliever Dominic Leone.
John Gant came on in relief to retire Derek Dietrich and record his second save.
The visitors, who had the game's first two hits, produced the game's best early scoring chance in the first as Joey Votto reached on an error to lead off the game and Yasiel Puig walked. The threat ended when Kolten Wong came up with an inning-ending diving stop on a liner toward right off the bat of Cincinnati's Tucker Barnhart.
The Cardinals' lone baserunner through three innings was Fowler, who walked to open the bottom of the third.
Flaherty (3-1) worked the first seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk. He struck out four.
In the Cincinnati eighth, John Brebbia got an out before allowing a bloop single. Andrew Miller came on to retire Votto on a fly ball to left and then Jordan Hicks was called on to get Winker.
The Cardinals got three RBIs from Molina, two hits and an RBI from Martinez and an RBI single from Fowler.
The Reds got hits Sunday from Votto, Eugenio Suarez, Barnhart, Sonny Gray and Jose Peraza. Gray started and took the loss, slipping to 0-4.
