CINCINNATI _ For the third game in succession, the Cardinals scored only on solo home runs and lost.
Jedd Gyorko's first-inning homer, his 25th of the season, and Cardinals' fourth homer in the three days, got the Cardinals off to a fast start in the first. The drive extended their streak of consecutive games in which they had homered to 22. It was also the end of their scoring as they fell to the Reds, 9-1, despite eight walks from Reds' pitching, seven by Reds starter Dan Straily.
Clearly, none of them scored, as Jaime Garcia, who struck out eight, absorbed a tough loss, allowing one of the two runs he yielded in on a passed ball by rookie catcher Alberto Rosario in the fifth and the other due to a misplayed ball in the shadows by right fielder Stephen Piscotty in the third.
The key play of the game was center fielder Billy Hamilton jumping and reaching high for Rosario's drive over his head in the fourth. It could have been a two-run double but instead it became a double play when Greg Garcia had gone too far around second, coming from first, and couldn't get back. Garcia admitted he should have pulled up just short of second base rather than rounding it.
"You should just get to second and wait," Garcia said. "I didn't think he had a chance to catch it. But I can't get doubled off right there. There's no need to."
Two key decisions didn't go Matheny's way. As he steadfastly wanted to give regular catcher Yadier Molina a full day off, he allowed Rosario to hit for himself in the sixth with the bases loaded and the catcher grounded out to end the inning. Matheny said he wasn't tempted to hit for Rosario because it was only the sixth inning.
The Cardinals had only two catchers Saturday but they could have three Sunday because Brayan Pena, who caught for Class A Palm Beach on Saturday, is eligible to come off the 60-day disabled list on Sunday.
In the seventh, lefthander Dean Kiekhefer, making his first appearance since being brought up on Monday, was left in to face switch-hitting Ramon Cabrera, who was pinch hitting. Cabrera was hitting only .234 as a left-handed batter but .320 right-hander on a small sample size of eight for 25. Cabrera singled in two runs to help put the game away.
But Matheny explained that he thought left-handed-batting Scott Schebler, normally a regular, would have hit for Cabrera if he had gone to right-hander Jonathan Broxton.
The Reds pushed it farther out of reach in the eighth against Jerome Williams as Matheny went into the nether reaches of his bullpen. Williams, unused in a week, walked four batters in the eighth and all of them scored as the Reds piled on for five more runs.
The Cardinals' four runs in the last three games against Milwaukee have come on two homers by Molina, one by Gyorko and one by Randal Grichuk.
Considering the final score, it might seem strange to say that the Cardinals could have won this game. "We had some chances," Matheny said. "Jaime's stuff was good enough to win with.
"But we got into a spot where we got behind and we had to have other people pitch. We had some trouble late."
The Cardinals, incidentally, are only 11-11 in their 22-game homer streak.
