CINCINNATI _ Perhaps all you need to know about a Cardinals season going nowhere faster by the day is they have been outscored by the last-place, ostensibly pitching-poor Cincinnati Reds 31-11 at Great American Ball Park this season.
That covers five games, all won by the Reds, including Friday night's latest futile offensive exercise, a 3-2 loss to the Reds as former Cincinnati right-hander Mike Leake failed to beat his old team for the eighth straight start as a Cardinal.
This one was better than most of his starts against the Reds here but neither he nor the Cardinals could quite overcome a five-single outburst in the fifth inning, which led to the two go-ahead runs.
The Cardinals' offense managed to push just one runner into scoring position for the first six innings when Greg Garcia tripled in the third and Leake himself drove in the run with an infield hit which should have been an out.
They then left two runners on in the seventh when Jedd Gyorko struck out and the bases loaded in the eighth, after Carson Kelly singled in a run, when fast-falling Randal Grichuk was called out on strikes. In the ninth, Gyorko singled and and Matt Carpenter walked but Tommy Pham flied to right and Paul DeJong struck out against Reds closer Raisel Iglesias.
Thus, the Cardinals stranded seven runners in the last three innings.
Hoping finally to get over .500 with a sweep here, the Cardinals instead sank to three games under break-even. They have scored two runs or fewer in six of their last eight games.
