ST. LOUIS _ Nothing comes easy. Not for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016.
With their playoff lives in the balance, the Cardinals were up two after five innings but gave up runs to visiting Cincinnati in the eighth and nine innings. It looked like Thursday's series finale before 38,830 rained-on fans at Busch Stadium was headed to extra innings.
But Yadier Molina saved the day for Cardinals, doubling into the left-field corner with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to drive in Matt Carpenter with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Carpenter walked with one out in the inning.
It was the fifth walk-off RBI for Molina, who homered earlier in the game.
Rookie right-hander Alex Reyes started, threw six solid inning and drove in first major league run RBI. But the Cardinals were unable to close it out in regulation.
With a win, the Cardinals (83-76) are a half game behind the San Francisco Giants in the race for the second National League wild-card spot. The Giants and Rockies played later on Thursday night in San Francisco.
The Reds scored first on Thursday, getting a leadoff double in the second from Adam Duvall and a two-out single from Tucker Barnhart to drive him in.
Jedd Gyorko led off the Cardinals' second with his team-leading 28th homer of the season to tie it. In the Cards' fourth Aledmys Diaz led off with bloop double, took third on a flyout from fellow rookie Jose Martinez and scored when Cincinnati shortstop Jose Peraza initially bobbled a grounder hit by Reyes and ended up throwing to first instead of home plate.
Yadier Molina made it 3-1 in the fifth, connecting for a solo homer with one out.
The Reds got a run back in the eighth. Joey Votto led off with an opposite-field double against lefty Zach Duke and Duvall followed with a run-scoring single to right. Lefty Kevin Siegrist came on with two on and one out to help the Cardinals escape the jam.
In the ninth, the Reds' Ramon Cabrera led off with a double over the head of center fielder Grichuk. Seung Hwan Oh got a strikeout and a groundout and had pinch-hitter Scott Shebler in a 1-2 hole when he topped a ball toward third base for an infield hit and a 3-all ballgame.
But Molina changed that with his double.
