Jack Flaherty started the run by allowing two earned runs in six innings at Washington. Six days later, after his fellow Cardinals starting pitchers had followed suit, Flaherty continued the rotation’s recent excellence.
Walking no one and striking out six, Flaherty held the Cincinnati Reds to three hits over seven innings as the Cardinals pulled off their first three-game series sweep of the Reds in three years with a 4-2 win Sunday at Busch Stadium.
Counting the combined works of Adam Wainwright, Carlos Martinez, Kwang Hyun Kim and John Gant, Cardinals starters have given up just six earned runs in their past 37 2.3 innings for a 1.44 ERA and have struck out 37 while walking only seven.
Flaherty, who is 4-0 for the season and who should have had a fifth had he recorded two more outs on opening day in Cincinnati, got much of the offense he needed on two solo homers by Tyler O’Neill, just back in the lineup.
Tommy Edman and Dylan Castillo, tied for the Cardinals’ team lead in times reached base in the first 20 games at 30, both singled to open the first against Reds starter Luis Castillo. Edman came home on Paul Goldschmidt’s forceout grounder which should have been a double play had the Reds’ infielders been able to handle the transfer better.
The Cardinals’ early defense was more on point. Shortstop Paul DeJong dived to his left in a shift for Joey Votto’s grounder and recovered to throw Votto out at first by a step, as Goldschmidt stretched for a wide throw. Goldschmidt turned in the Cardinals’ second outstanding defensive play of the inning, running a long way toward the box seats to haul in Nick Sensel’s foul fly.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt made an interesting lineup call Sunday, deciding to go with O’Neill, nothing for 14 in his career against Castillo, and not with struggling Matt Carpenter who actually has two homer and a 1.020 OBP versus the righthander. So O’Neill, hitting the ball to the opposite field, slugged his second homer of the season, off a 96 mph sinker, into the right-center-field bleachers in the second to double the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0.
And then he planted a slider 423 feet into the center-field greenery in the fifth and it was 3-0. That soon became 4-0 in the same inning on a single by Andrew Knizner, Flaherty’s sacrifice bunt, an infield out by Edman and a two-out single by Carlson, who had two three-hit games and was on base eight times in the three-game series after being moved to the No. 2 spot in the batting order.
Flaherty, meanwhile, set down the first 10 Reds.
Jesse Winker laced the Reds’ first hit, a single to right center, with one out in the fourth. But Flaherty quickly erased that with the assistance of third baseman Nolan Arenado, who gobbled Nick Castellanos’ grounder and converted it into an inning-ending double play.
Flaherty permitted just one hit through six innings although another sort of hit drew considerable attention. A Flaherty four-seamer at 94 mph ran in on the Reds’ Jonathan India in the sixth, knocking India’s helmet off.
India, who had been hit by a pitch from the Cardinals’ Jake Woodford three weeks ago in Cincinnati, stayed in the game after getting to his feet. It was brief, though, as India came out of the game after the inning.
Irate Reds manager David Bell didn’t last even that long, being run by Joe West’s umpiring crew.
Flaherty dropped his head after hitting India but, after receiving a visit from pitching coach Mike Maddux, got out of the inning without any scoring.
But, in the seventh, he gave up a home run to Winker and a single to Castellanos before Maddux came to the mound again. Flaherty immediately threw a double-play ball to Votto.
Flaherty would finish his day by catching Eugenio Suarez looking at a third strike for Flaherty’s sixth strikeout on his 95th pitch.
The Reds would add a run off Jordan Hicks in the eighth on a single by pinch hitter Tyler Naquin after an infield error by second baseman Edman and a wild pitch.
But Carlson doubled and Goldschmidt singled to get that run back in the Cardinals' eighth. Alex Reyes notched his fifth save in five tries with a scoreless ninth although he put three runners on with a double and two walks and required a running catch by left fielder O'Neill in front of rookie center fielder Scott Hurst.
