The lead changed hands three times before Cincinnati finally pulled away. The Reds beat the Cardinals 4-2 at Busch Stadium in a game that swung from the fourth inning through the ninth, with St. Louis unable to hold any of its leads.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 0 |
| STL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Dustin May was the story for most of the night on the mound for St. Louis, working 6.0 innings and allowing just 1 run (1 earned) on 7 hits while striking out 8. He walked only 1 and needed 89 pitches to get through six, keeping the Cardinals in the game even as the offense struggled to generate much beyond a two-run fifth. The bullpen could not build on his work, however, allowing 3 runs over 3.0 innings in relief.
Cincinnati broke through first in the fourth when Stephenson's ground-rule double scored Bleday, tying what had been a scoreless game into a 1-0 Reds lead. St. Louis answered immediately in the bottom of the fifth, as Jordan's double to left drove in both Church and Herrera to put the Cardinals ahead 2-1. But the Reds retook the lead for good in the seventh, when Suarez homered to left center, a 435-foot shot that also brought home Stewart and made it 3-2. Cincinnati added an insurance run in the ninth when Stewart singled to left to score De La Cruz, capping the scoring at 4-2.
Rhett Lowder started for Cincinnati and allowed 2 runs (2 earned) on just 1 hit across 5.0 innings, with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. George Soriano took the loss for St. Louis, charged with 2 runs on 3 hits in 1.0 inning of relief. Emilio Pagan closed it out for Cincinnati with a scoreless inning, striking out 2 to earn his 10th save of the season, while Julian Robert Garcia picked up his first win.
The result extended Cincinnati's winning streak to three games, improving the Reds to 48-54. St. Louis, which had a 2-0 lead as recently as the fifth, fell to 52-51 with the loss, its second straight. Suarez finished 2-for-4 with the homer and 2 RBIs, sitting 10 hits shy of 1,500 for his career and 12 RBIs shy of 1,000.