CINCINNATI _ The Cardinals got themselves in a bind and needed Seung Hwan Oh to get them out of it.
He did in the eighth.
It caught up to them in the ninth inning.
Scott Schebler drilled a three-run homer to give Cincinnati a 7-5 victory Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park. Schebler's first career walk-off homer came in the ninth inning and rapidly erased the Cardinals lead while also exposing how a series of moves got them into an increasingly perilous situation. Oh not only had to pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, he had to hit with the bases loaded in the ninth inning. Both netted a zero.
That left him little margin for error in the ninth.
Six homers were hit in the game before the ninth inning, and the Cardinals had four. Three times they had to come back to tie the game.
Brandon Moss led off the eighth with a homer to do so, 4-4. And then Tommy Pham followed with a pinch-hit homer to put the Cardinals ahead. The homer was Pham's first pinch-hit shot of his career, and it meant the Cardinals have set a new franchise record with 11 pinch-hit homers this season.
