ST. LOUIS — It was about a third of the way through this season that the Cardinals settled on Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson as their regular top of the lineup hitters.
The combination had a good deal of success – until the calender flipped to September. After struggling to open the month, however, they had a bounce-back game on Thursday at Busch Stadium.
Winn homered and scored twice while Burleson added a key single that set up the go-ahead run in the Cardinals’ win over the Reds.
Going into the game, Winn had just four hits in 35 at-bats this month while Burleson had been limited to three hits in 28 at-bats.
Thomas Saggese recorded the first two hits of his major-league career and the Cardinals picked up a half game in their pursuit of the final wildcard spot in the playoffs. They are six games out of that spot and trail the Mets, Braves and Cubs with 16 games remaining in the season.
Here is how Sunday’s game broke down:
At the plate: Winn’s 13th homer of the year put the Cardinals up 1-0 in the third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Lars Nootbaar to put the Cardinals ahead 2-1 in the sixth … Brendan Donovan’s pinch-hit home run increased the lead to 4-1 in the seventh. It was the first pinch-hit homer of his career and his 13th of the season … Saggese recorded his first RBI with a single in the eighth after collecting his first career hit, a bloop single to right, in the seventh.
On the mound: Sonny Gray retired the first 15 batters he faced, seven on strikeouts, before Jake Fraley led off the sixth with a single to right. Fraley later scored the Reds only run on a single by Jonathan India … Andrew Kittredge and JoJo Romero combined to cover the final three innings with Romero getting the final four outs to earn his first save of the season … The bullpen shut out the Reds in a combined 11 innings in the three games, allowing a total of three hits.
Key stat: Winn and Burleson were a combined 3-of-10. In the previous six games this month when they hit 1-2 in the lineup, they had been a combined 4-of-48 with one RBI and two runs scored.
Worth noting: The Cardinals finished the season series against the Reds with a 6-7 record … They are 23-25 against the NL Central with four games remaining at home next week against the Pirates … The win for Gray was the first by a Cardinals starter in their 10 games this month … Top pitching prospect Tink Hence, who has endured a couple of injuries this season, had to come out of Springfield’s game on Wednesday night after throwing only 29 pitches. There was no information available on Thursday about his status.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will play the Blue Jays in a three-game series this weekend in Toronto. Erick Fedde is the scheduled starter for the opener on Friday night.
