INSTANT REACTION: Reds Blow Early Lead Again, Fall to Cardinals 4-2

CINCINNATI -- Less than two weeks ago, the Reds were seven game over .500. Now, they're right back to .500 at 68-68.

The Reds fell to the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 Saturday night at Great American Ball Park. They didn't take advantage of the New York Mets losing earlier Saturday, where they could have moved back to just four games out of the third NL Wild Card.

With the loss, though, the Reds are still five games back of the third NL Wild Card.

For the second straight night, the Reds had the tying runs on base with two outs and trailing by two runs. Unfortunately, two forceouts and a groundout later, and the Reds fell 4-2.

Andrew Abbott Not At His Best Again

A big reason why the Reds have not been able to get over the hump in the second half of the regular season is Abbott has been struggling.

He's only won one of his starts in that stretch, while taking the loss four times. Abbott just hasn't had the same command of the strike zone, and it's forced the Reds bullpen to pitch more innings than they did in the firts half when Abbott pitched.

Saturday night, Abbott walked four Cardinals hitters despite only allowing two runs on three hits. He was up to 96 pitches through five innings, and only 61 of them were thrown for strikes.

Much of the focus will be on the Reds offense for this team not being able to seriously dent into the NL Wild Card race. But Abbott just has not been pitching since the All-Star Break like he was before it. That has to be a talking point as to why this team has fallen all the way back to .500.

Notes And Observations

The Reds are now 3-6 against the Cardinals this season.
Cincinnati went 1-8 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
Reds hitters did not strike out one time Saturday night.
Miguel Andujar had multiple hits.

Scoring Summary

Bottom 1st
CIN: Gavin Lux RBI double (Reds lead 1-0)

Top 4th
STL: Nathan Church two-run single (Cardinals lead 2-1)

Top 7th
STL: Wilson Contreras solo HR (20) (Cardinals lead 3-1)

Bottom 7th
CIN: Matt McLain solo HR (12) (Cardinals lead 3-2)

Top 8th
STL: Pedro Pages solo HR (11) (Cardinals lead 4-2)

On Deck

The series finale is Sunday afternoon between the Reds and Cardinals.

Reds right-hander Brady Singer (11-9, 4.06 ERA) will start against Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallente (6-12, 5.44 ERA).

First pitch is at 12:10 E.T. on FanDuel Sports Network Cincinnati and 700WLW.

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