Cards get pitching, clutch hits to continue Reds' skid

Nathan Church drove in two runs as the visiting St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 on Saturday night.

Willson Contreras and Pedro Pages hit homers as the Cardinals won their third straight game.

Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy (6-2) allowed one run on five hits and two walks in six innings. He didn't record a strikeout, but he got 12 outs on the ground.

Kyle Leahy got the last four outs to earn his first save.

Matt McLain hit a home run for the Reds, who have lost eight of their last nine games.

Reds starter Andrew Abbott (8-5) allowed two runs on three hits and four walks in five innings. He struck out seven.

Abbott got out of a first-inning jam under unusual circumstances.

Ivan Herrera hit a one-out single and went to third on Lars Nootbaar's double. After Contreras walked to load the bases, Jordan Walker hit a pop-up that landed safely in the middle of diamond.

The umpires invoked the infield fly rule, but the Cardinals ran into an inning-ending double play.

The Reds moved ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the inning on one-out singles by Noelvi Marte and Elly De La Cruz followed by Gavin Lux's two-out RBI double.

The Cardinals exploited Abbott's wildness to move ahead 2-1 in the fourth inning. Abbott walked Walker with one out and Thomas Saggese with two outs.

After Pages was hit by a pitch, Church hit a two-run single.

St. Louis left the bases loaded in the sixth inning. Nolan Gorman walked with one out, then Saggese hit a single.

After Church walked with two outs to load the bases, Masyn Winn struck out to end the threat.

Contreras increased the Cardinals' margin to 3-1 with his seventh-inning homer. In the bottom inning, though, McLain hit a homer to get that run back.

Pages pushed the St. Louis advantage to 4-2 with his eighth-inning homer.

--Field Level Media