ST. LOUIS -- With the temperature soaring above 95 degrees on Saturday, Elly De La Cruz's afternoon started rather ominously with him getting ill in the fourth inning.
Unfortunately for the Reds, the rest of the team may have left with a sick feeling after a tough 6-5 loss to the Cardinals in 11 innings at Busch Stadium.
“I thought we did some really good things,” manager Terry Francona said. “We fought. On a day where we used pretty much all our pitchers. ... That's the way the game is sometimes.”
De La Cruz stayed in the game and his two-run homer off Cards reliever Steven Matz, a Statcast-projected 435-foot blast to center field, gave the Reds a 4-2 lead in the top of the seventh. Spencer Steer tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Will Benson to extend to the lead in the eighth.
But the Cardinals finally broke through with two in the eighth before Nolan Arenado’s solo homer off Emilio Pagán in the ninth sent the game to extra innings.
“If I had that pitch back, I might throw something else,” Pagán said of the cutter that Arenado hit over the left-field wall. “He's kind of been all over breaking balls, trying to get it to the very bottom of the zone, and it was just kind of bottom-third. So it wasn't a terrible pitch, but probably the wrong one in that spot.”
Yohel Pozo’s first career walk-off hit -- a single off Chase Petty -- scored Jordan Walker for the game-winner. Petty, pitching for the first time since May 11, almost worked out of the two-on, none-out jam by getting a couple of popups. Even the pitch to Pozo that blooped in for the hit was well placed and out of the zone.
“We needed to save our [bullpen] length for the end,” Francona said. “It was a difficult spot [for Petty].”
It was the third straight loss for the Reds, who used eight pitchers in a bullpen game.
Up until his homer, De La Cruz was delivering his own take of the classic 1966 western movie, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
The good
De La Cruz snapped a 1-for-15 (.067) skid with a two-out triple off Cardinals starter Sonny Gray in the third inning. It was the sixth career game with a triple and a homer for De La Cruz, who tied six others for the fourth-most such games through the age of 23 in MLB history, according to MLB research.
The bad
On the same play, De La Cruz unsuccessfully attempted to complete the “Little League home run.” After sliding into the bag, De La Cruz popped up after the cutoff throw got away from third baseman Arenado. De La Cruz was easily thrown out at home plate to end the inning.
“He just hesitated,” Francona said. “You know, again, he's picking himself off the ground after a headfirst slide, but I bet you if he saw it right away, he might have made it.”
The ugly
The game was halted for several minutes in the bottom of the fourth after De La Cruz became sick. After being checked on by training staff, and a quick cleanup by the Cardinals’ grounds crew, De La Cruz stayed in the game.
“I actually watched him,” Francona said. “He drank a bunch of water. I mean, a bunch, and then he went right out and got rid of it.”
Brent Suter opened the bullpen game. He allowed two runs on an Alec Burleson home run in the first inning that gave the Cardinals an early lead.
Nick Martinez followed with an efficient two innings -- needing just 18 pitches to retire the Cardinals in order. Ian Gibaut and Lyon Richardson combined for three more scoreless innings as Reds relievers did not allow a hit from the third through the seventh innings.
Matt McLain led off the third with a single, his first of three hits, and scored on a 1-6-3 double play off the bat of Gavin Lux to cut it to 2-1. Lux later tied the game at 2-2, scoring Jake Fraley on a groundout right before De La Cruz’s homer in the seventh.
“The hard part is we had to lead there at the end,” Pagán said. “But you know, we fought hard all game. We're playing really good baseball and so, you know, Tito's been kind of preaching it since Spring Training -- this one's done. We'll focus on tomorrow. Show up ready to play.”