Cardinals center fielder Michael Siani tagged up and scored from third base on a ball caught by Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz in shallow center field, and that aggressive base running maneuver provided the margin of victory in a pitchers’ duel between NL Central Division rivals.
Siani’s run accounted for the entirety of the scoring in the game as the Cardinals logged a 1-0 win over the Reds in front of an announced crowd of 40,220 in the second game of a four-game series at Busch Stadium on Friday night.
The Cardinals (42-39) shut out an opponent for the fourth time this season.
Siani went 1 for 3 with the Cardinals’ lone extra-base hit. Alec Burleson’s pop up served as a sacrifice fly and drove in the game’s only run.
Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante (4-3) pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings, allowed four hits and three walks. He also struck out five to earn the win.
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Rookie reliever Ryan Fernandez pitched 1 2/3 innings and didn’t allow a batter to reach base. The Cardinals three-headed relief pitching monster of JoJo Romero, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Helsley all contributed to shutting the door in the final two innings with the slimmest of margins for error.
In the eighth inning, the fleet footed De La Cruz walked against Romero, stole second base and then tagged up and advanced to third base to put the tying run 90 feet away.
With the right-handed hitting slugger Noelvi Marte up with two outs, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol turned to Kittredge for the righty-righty matchup. Kittredge struck out Marte, swinging, on three pitches and stranded De La Cruz at third base.
Helsley retired the side in order in the ninth, but left fielder Brendan Donovan made a leaping catch at the wall on a ball hit by Stuart Fairchild to record the final out of the game. Helsley registered his 29th consecutive save. His 29 saves lead MLB.
Pallante’s track record against the Reds
Pallante hadn’t pitched in a game since he started against the San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20.
Pallante entered Friday night’s game having won each of his four previous career decisions against the Reds (4-0) in 13 total appearances. He’d compiled an ERA of 1.55 against the Reds in his career.
Pallante began this season in the Cardinals’ bullpen, but he went down to the minors and stretched out as a starting pitcher. He’s started since he returned to the majors. His first start since the 2022 season came against the Reds in Cincinnati on May 29. He pitched six scoreless innings and allowed three hits and three walks to get the win.
In three previous career starts against the Reds, he’d posted a 1.65 ERA against the Reds.
Entering the night, Pallante had appeared in 123 career games in the majors and he’d posted a career ERA of 4.01.
Manufacturing a lead
The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the third inning after a leadoff double ripped off the right field wall by Siani. The double came off Siani’s bat with an exit velocity of 104.1 mph.
Siani then advanced to third base on a grounder to the right side of the infield by Donovan. That put a runner on third with just one out.
Willson Contreras walked to give the Cardinals two base runners with just one out, and that brought Burleson to the plate.
Burleson, who’d fouled off six pitches from Reds starting pitcher Frankie Montas in his first-inning plate appearance, hit a fly ball to shallow center field. De La Cruz, the Reds shortstop, drifted backward and made the catch while drifting in the outfield.
Siani tagged up and scored on the play with De La Cruz’s throw to the plate off his back foot tailing slightly up the third base line before it ricocheted away from catcher Luke Maile. The errant throw allowed Contreras to advance to second base.
A potentially pivotal frame for Pallante
Pallante stranded the bases loaded to preserve the one-run lead in the fifth inning.
The Reds put two men on with one out after Will Benson walked and Stuart Fairchild swatted a bloop single into right field.
Pallante got Maile to fly out to shallow center field after Maile failed to get down a bunt attempt. That left two men on with two outs.
Reds leadoff hitter Jonathan India, who had hits in each of his previous two at-bats in the game against Pallante, drew a walk to load the bases. That set up a matchup between Pallante and the switch-hitting De La Cruz.
Pallante came into the night having held left-handed hitters to a .185 batting average this season. De La Cruz grounded to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who flipped to Pallante covering first base for the third out of the inning.
Fernandez and Donovan get assists in the sixth
Pallante put the first two batters of the sixth inning on base when he hit Spencer Steer with a pitch and then walked Nick Martini.
Pallante got the last batter he faced, Marte, to hit a soft fly ball down the left field line that Brendan Donovan caught for the first out of the inning.
Rookie reliever Ryan Fernandez, who pitched in the ninth inning on Thursday night, then entered the game with two men on and one out.
The first batter Fernandez faced, Santiago Espinal, hit a deep drive to the warning track in left field. The ball tailed away from Donovan, but the former Gold Glove winner (as a utility player) made a leaping catch on the run just in front of the wall headed toward the left field corner.
Donovan’s catch was the second out of the inning, and Fernandez struck out Will Benson to strand both of the inherited runners on base and keep the one-run lead.