ST. LOUIS — Rookie Jaime Garcia beat the Reds for the fourth time, halting the St. Louis Cardinals’ five-game losing streak and ending Cincinnati’s four-game run in a 3-2 victory Friday night.
Brandon Phillips was booed on almost every pitch he faced and whenever he touched the ball in the field in his first game against St. Louis since his argument with catcher Yadier Molina precipitated a fracas in Cincinnati on Aug. 10.
Major League Baseball assigned the same umpiring crew that worked the Aug. 10 game to a three-game series that lost dramatic punch with the Reds’ surge and the Cardinals’ slide. After the Cardinals swept that mid-August series to take a one-game lead in the NL Central, the Reds have raced to a seven-game lead in the division.
St. Louis scored in consecutive innings for the first time in seven games, getting two in the first and one in the second for just enough cushion. Jon Jay had an RBI triple, Albert Pujols followed with a sacrifice fly in the first and Brendan Ryan singled, went to third on Garcia’s double and scored on Skip Schumaker’s groundout in the second.
Garcia (13-6) is 4-0 with a 3.70 ERA in four starts against the Reds this year, beating them twice at home and twice on the road.
