ST. LOUIS — Fans who came to the game on Friday night at Busch Stadium were rewarded by getting to set a pinch-hit at-bat for Adam Wainwright.
They also got to see a lot of hits, a lot of home runs and a lot of runs – for the Reds.
The Reds hit six home runs, all before the end of the fourth inning, and blew out the Cardinals to keep their playoff hopes alive and give the Cardinals their 91st loss of the season. They are limping to the end of the season, having lost eight of their last 10 games and falling to a season-low 22 games below .500.
The Cardinals were trailing 14-2 in the sixth inning when Wainwright led off the inning, pinch-hitting for Luken Baker. After fouling off the first pitch, he hit a hard groundball to second and was thrown out at first.
It’s possible that Wainwright will get additional at-bats during the final two games of the season on Saturday and Sunday.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Richie Palacios hit a two-run homer, his sixth of the season, in the third to produce all of the Cardinals runs … Masyn Winn had a pair of singles but the Cardinals were held to just six hits in the game and didn’t get a runner past second base after the fifth inning.
On the mound: Jake Woodford was the victim of the Reds’ early assault, giving up seven runs as he failed to get through the second inning … The Reds broke the game open with three home runs in a seven-run fourth inning. Five of the runs came off Casey Lawrence and two off Andrew Suarez, who then shut the Reds out until the eighth, when he gave up three more runs. The five-run eighth also included two runs off Jacob Barnes … Eleven of the Reds 17 hits went for extra bases.
Key stat: The six home runs were the most the Cardinals have ever allowed in a game at Busch Stadium 3. They had given up five homers on five occasions, the most recent in 2019.
Worth noting: The 19 runs were the second most allowed by the Cardinals in a game at Busch 3. The Phillies scored 20 in a game in 2008 … This is only the fifth time in franchise history the Cardinals have allowed six or more home runs in a home game. The record of seven was set by Pittsburgh in 2003 … The 19 runs equaled the most the Reds have ever scored in a game in St. Louis, matching the total from a game in 1956.
Looking ahead: Drew Rom will get the start on Saturday night, with the game preceding a post-game concert by Wainwright.