ST. LOUIS — Trying to prevent opponents from stealing bases at will has been a problem all season for the Cardinals, and that proved to be the case again on Saturday.
The Reds stole five bases, four of them in the fifth inning. That led to a six-run inning, carrying them to the win at Busch Stadium.
All four of the runners who got a stolen base in the inning came around to score.
In the first three games of this series, the Reds have stolen 11 bases and not had a runner thrown out.
It’s been a continuing problem for the Cardinals, who have now allowed 73 stolen bases this year and thrown out only 10 runners. It’s been even worse in June, when opponents are 36-of-39 in stolen base attempts against the Cardinals.
The six-run inning knocked Sonny Gray out of the game, although three of the six runs charged to Gray were unearned because of an error by Nolan Arenado.
About the only bright spot for the Cardinals was the major-league debut of Gordon Graceffo, who became the fifth pitcher to make his debut for the Cardinals this season. He allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings.
Here is how Saturday’s game broke down:
At the plate: Matt Carpenter had two hits, drove in a run and scored once … Paul Goldschmidt hit his 11th home run of the season, with two outs in the sixth … Michael Siani and Nolan Gorman had the other RBIs for the Cardinals, each with a single … The Cardinals were 3-of-7 with runners in scoring position and are 5-of-20 in losing two of the first three games of the series.
On the mound: In addition to allowing the 11 steals in the series, the Reds hit seven more doubles on Saturday, and a triple, giving them 16 extra-base hits, all doubles and triples, in the first three games of the series … Gray was pulled after 4 1/3 innings. He allowed seven hits and walked one … John King relieved Gray with the bases loaded and allowed all three inherited runners to score. For the season he has allowed 11 of 15 inherited runners to score … Graceffo got the final out in the fifth, then covered the final four innings, giving up just the one run as he struck out four and walked two.
Key stat: This was only the third time in the last 25 years the Cardinals allowed five stolen bases in a game. The other two were on Sept. 18, 2007 by the Phillies and on Aug. 5, 1999 by the Padres.
Worth noting: The fielding error by Arenado snapped a streak of nine consecutive games for the Cardinals without an error. The last time they played 10 games in a row without an error was in 2017 … Before the game the Cardinals had a moment of silence for Orlando Cepeda, the first baseman on their World Series teams in 1967 and 1968 and the MVP in 1967. Cepeda died on Friday at the age of 86.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will try to earn a split of the four-game series against the Reds in the series finale on Sunday. Lance Lynn is the scheduled starter.