ST. LOUIS (AP) – Yadier Molina homered and doubled before leaving because of a sore foot, and the St. Louis Cardinals sent the Cincinnati Reds to their fifth straight loss, 5-4, Friday night. Molina raised his batting average to .339, helping St. Louis build a 5-0 lead. But the star catcher exited after batting in the fifth inning because of soreness in his right foot.
Manager Mike Shildt didn’t have a report on the severity of the injury postgame.
“We noticed it looked like he favored something after his swing, and then he came in, and we got him treatment and decided to get him out of there and get him looked at,” Shildt said.
Kwang-Hyun Kim (1-0) allowed one run and five hits with a career-high eight strikeouts. Three of Kim’s four major league wins have come against Cincinnati.
Sonny Gray (0-1) gave up five runs, six hits, and three walks in 3 2/3 innings in his second start after opening the season on the 10-day injured list with a strained back muscle. The Reds have lost five straight games for the first time since Sept. 22-27, 2019.
“It was one inning for me, and I couldn’t get out of that one inning,” Gray said. “I put us in a pretty big hole in the third inning of a game on the road.”
Cincinnati scored three times in the ninth before Alex Reyes got the final two outs for his fourth save. Jonathan India lofted a triple off Jordan Hicks that fell between center fielder Dylan Carlson and right fielder Justin Williams, cutting the St. Louis lead to 5-2. Pinch-hitter Tucker Barnhart walked, prompting Shildt to turn to Reyes.
Reyes walked Tyler Naquin to load the bases and Jesse Winker to score another run. Castellanos struck out, but a wild pitch on strike three allowed Barnhart to score.
Eugenio Suárez worked a 3-2 count against Reyes before he struck out, looking to end the game.
Molina hit his fifth home run of the season in the second to put St. Louis up 1-0.
The Cardinals broke the game open with a four-run, one-out rally in the third. Paul Goldschmidt doubled in two runs, Nolan Arenado singled to drive in Goldschmidt, and Molina doubled to right-center.
“I have had guys on and haven’t done a great job driving them in,” Goldschmidt said. “To come through there and open up that lead was good.” Nick Castellanos homered to the left to open the Red’s sixth. It was his seventh homer of the season and his 1,000th career hit.
Castellanos was serenaded with boos in his first game back from serving a two-game suspension for precipitating a benches-clearing incident against the Cardinals on April 3.
“It was definitely a pretty cool moment being in St. Louis and especially hearing all the boos and stuff,” Castellanos said. “Being able to do it was a pretty cool moment.”
REDS ROSTER SHUFFLE
The Reds recalled RHPs Heath Hembree and Ryan Hendrix from their alternate training site and optioned LHP Cionel Pérez and INF Max Schrock.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Reds: INF Mike Moustakas continues to recover from a non-COVID-19-related illness that has kept him on the 10-day injured list retroactive to April 17.
“We’re going to take the weekend to get him back into as much baseball activity as he needs and have him ready to go in LA,” manager David Bell said.
Cardinals: Placed 1B John Nogowski on the 10-day injured list retroactive to April 20 with a bone bruise on his left hand and activated OF Tyler O’Neill (right groin strain).
UP NEXT
LHP Wade Miley (2-1, 2.25 ERA) starts for the Reds against John Gant (0-2, 3.21), who returned to the St. Louis starting rotation this season for the first time since 2018.
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