St. Louis Cardinals edge Cincinnati Reds behind Paul Goldschmidt’s two homers

Paul Goldschmidt hit two homers and drove in three runs to lift the visiting St. Louis Cardinals past the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 Wednesday in the first half of a doubleheader.

The Cardinals (68-63) won for the fourth time in five games while the Reds (71-63) lost their fourth straight game.

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas allowed four runs on five hits in three innings. Genesis Cabrera (3-5) followed with two scoreless innings to earn the victory.

Giovanny Gallegos closed out the seventh inning for his fourth save.

Reds starting pitcher Wade Miley (11-5) allowed five runs on his season-high 12 hits in four innings.

The Cardinals struck first when Goldschmidt crushed a 439-foot homer to center field in the first inning. Tyler O’Neill followed with a single and Dylan Carlson hit a two-out single, but Miley got Edmundo Sosa to ground into an inning-ending forceout.

Harrison Bader’s solo homer boosted the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0 in the second inning. Andrew Knizner’s single and Goldschmidt’s two-out walk gave them a chance to tack on runs, but Miley struck out O’Neill to strand the runners.

The Reds countered in their half of the inning. Joey Votto drew a leadoff walk, Kyle Farmer reached on a one-out infield single, and Tucker Barnhart hit an RBI single.

Miley helped his cause by hitting a two-out, two-run double into the left field corner to put the Reds up 3-2.

The Cardinals tied the game 3-3 in the third inning. Nolan Arenado hit a leadoff single, raced to third base on Carlson’s single, and scored on Sosa’s sacrifice fly.

The Reds regained the lead in the bottom of the inning, Nick Castellanos hit a one-out single and scored on Votto’s double to make it 4-3.

The Cardinals took a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning when Tommy Edman hit a one-out single and Goldschmidt followed with a two-run homer.

–Field Level Media