ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Cincinnati Reds bullpen reverted back to its early season form Monday night.

The St. Louis Cardinals rallied for five runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against relievers Tony Cingrani and Ross Ohlendorf to beat the Reds 5-4.

“The catalysts really were three walks and two hit by pitches and we allowed them to get excited and their fans to get excited and we weren’t able to execute the pitches we needed to do to finish the inning,” manager Bryan Price said.

Yadier Molina started the rally with a hit and ended it by getting hit in by a fastball from Ohlendorf with the bases loaded.

“I was really disappointed to not be able to come through in a big situation like that,” Ohlendorf said. “It was a fun situation as a pitcher, a chance to really make a difference for us, so it was disappointing when it doesn’t happen.”

Matt Carpenter drove in two runs with a single, Stephen Piscotty singled home another and Matt Holliday walked to load the bases before Cingrani (2-4) was lifted for Ohlendorf, who walked Brandon Moss to tie it before hitting Molina.

The Reds’ bullpen has rebounded after a horrible start to the season in which it had ERAs of 6.21 and 7.25 in April and May, respectively. In July, the relievers combined for a 2.45 ERA, the third lowest in the National League, and had a 2.25 ERA in August entering the game.

“It’s miserable,” Price said. “It’s a miserable feeling but we’ve just got to come back tomorrow and win the game and get this feeling out of our system.”

The rally spoiled what had the makings of Cody Reed’s first major league win. Reed’s six scoreless innings dropped the Reds’ starters ERA to 2.84 over the last 11 games.

“It helps the confidence going into the next one,” Reed said. “We didn’t get the win, whatever, it’s going to happen. It didn’t happen today, it’s going to happen years from now so no worries. I’ll just get out there for the next one and try to win that one.”

Reed set the tone with a scoreless first inning. He entered the game with a 14.63 ERA in the first inning, including giving up four runs to the Cardinals in the opening frame in his last outing.

“He made some great pitches especially when he had to,” Moss said of Reed. “He did a much better job of controlling the strike zone and pitching off of it than he did the first time we faced him.”

Cardinals starter Michael Wacha struggled to settle in as seven of the first 12 batters he faced reached base. Zack Cozart’s double eluded the outstretched glove of Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday and went off the wall to give the Reds a 2-0 lead in the second. Cozart, who had two hits, scored when Joey Votto followed with a triple.

Seth Maness (2-2) pitched a perfect ninth to earn the win.

GRAND THEFT

Billy Hamilton led off the game for the Reds with a single and stole second and third. He is 17 for 19 in stolen base attempts against Molina, a perennial gold glove catcher, and the 17 stolen bases are the most by any base runner against Molina.

STILL STREAKING

Molina walked in the fourth inning to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 21 games. It is the longest streak by a Cardinals catcher since Gene Tenace reached in 35 straight between the 1981 and 1982 seasons.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Reds: RHP Alfredo Simon (right trapezius) and RHP A.J. Morris (strained right shoulder) began rehab assignments at Triple-A Louisville on Sunday. Simon gave up a run in an inning and Morris gave up three runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Cardinals: LHP Tyler Lyons (knee) saw a specialist in Chicago, but no update was available.

UP NEXT

Reds: LHP Brandon Finnegan (7-8, 4.45 ERA) is coming off a two-hit, six-inning shutout of St. Louis in a 7-0 win last week. His current 12-inning scoreless streak is the longest of his career.

Cardinals: RHP Mike Leake (8-9, 4.80 ERA) will look for better results against his former team after allowing seven runs his last time out in Cincinnati. In two career starts against the Reds, he is 0-1 with a 10.32 ERA.

MONDAY’S GAME

Cardinals 5, Reds 4

Cincinnati AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Hamilton cf 4 0 1 0 1 1 .255

Cozart ss 5 1 2 2 0 1 .265

Votto 1b 5 0 1 1 0 0 .288

Duvall lf 2 0 0 0 2 1 .239

Phillips 2b 3 1 1 0 1 0 .279

Schebler rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .189

Suarez 3b 4 1 2 1 0 0 .241

Barnhart c 3 1 1 0 1 1 .258

Reed p 3 0 0 0 0 1 .000

Diaz p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —

Wood p 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000

Cingrani p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —

Ohlendorf p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —

Totals 34 4 8 4 5 7

 

St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Carpenter 2b 5 0 2 2 0 0 .294

1-Hazelbaker pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 .245

Piscotty rf 5 1 2 1 0 1 .281

Holliday lf 4 0 0 0 1 2 .238

2-Leake pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 .162

Moss 1b 4 0 0 1 1 1 .258

Molina c 3 1 1 1 1 1 .279

Peralta ss 4 0 2 0 0 0 .237

Gyorko 3b 4 0 1 0 0 1 .244

Pham cf 2 1 1 0 2 0 .252

Wacha p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .026

a-Garcia ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .269

Bowman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

b-Adams ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .250

Duke p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —

Maness p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

c-Wong ph 0 1 0 0 0 0 .242

Totals 33 5 9 5 5 6

Cincinnati 031 000 000 = 4 8 1

St. Louis 000 000 005 = 5 9 0

 

Two outs when winning run scored.

a-reached on error, advanced to 2nd for Wacha in the 5th. b-grounded out for Bowman in the 7th. c-hit by pitch for Maness in the 9th.

1-ran for Carpenter in the 9th. 2-ran for Holliday in the 9th.

E—Duvall (4). LOB—Cincinnati 8, St. Louis 10. 2B—Cozart (24), Phillips (23), Carpenter (26), Piscotty (26), Peralta (10). 3B—Votto (1). RBIs—Cozart 2 (44), Votto (56), Suarez (51), Carpenter 2 (55), Piscotty (61), Moss (45), Molina (33). SB—Hamilton 2 (45), Duvall (4). S—Wacha.

Runners left in scoring position—Cincinnati 4 (Duvall, Phillips, Schebler 2); St. Louis 6 (Piscotty 2, Moss 2, Gyorko 2). RISP—Cincinnati 2 for 11; St. Louis 2 for 13.

Runners moved up—Schebler, Suarez, Votto, Carpenter. GIDP—Cozart, Gyorko, Adams.

DP—Cincinnati 2 (Cozart, Phillips, Votto), (Phillips, Cozart, Votto); St. Louis 1 (Peralta, Carpenter, Moss).

 

Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Reed 6 4 0 0 1 4 100 6.36

Diaz 1-3 1 0 0 1 0 12 3.74

Wood H, 8 1 2-3 1 0 0 0 2 25 3.38

Cingrani L, 2-4 2-3 3 5 5 2 0 25 3.91

Ohlendorf BS, 3-5 0 0 0 0 1 0 9 4.56

St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Wacha 5 6 4 4 4 3 86 4.45

Bowman 2 1 0 0 1 2 27 3.14

Duke 1 1 0 0 0 2 19 0.00

Maness W, 2-2 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 3.23

Inherited runners-scored—Wood 2-0, Ohlendorf 3-2. HBP—Cingrani (Wong), Ohlendorf (Molina). WP—Diaz.

Umpires—Home, Ted Barrett; First, Lance Barksdale; Second, Angel Hernandez; Third, Will Little.

T—3:10. A—40,616 (43,975).