ST. LOUIS — For the second time in as many nights against the Cincinnati Reds, runs were scarce for the Cardinals and a choice opportunity late in the game was about to slip past their bats.

All they needed was a run.

Ryan Helsley assured all they needed one, single run.

With a tie game Wednesday night and the go-ahead run at second base, Paul Goldschmidt got ahead in the count 3-0 against Reds’ reliever Buck Farmer. The right-hander’s next two pitches earned his way back into a full-count — and that’s when Goldschmidt, a day after his 37th birthday, pounced. The Cardinals first baseman and former MVP lined a ball to the wall in center field. Cincinnati’s TJ Friedl gave circuitous chase, but could not reach the liner in time to keep Goldschmidt from delivering the go-ahead RBI.

A bullpen that held the game tight turned the first lead over to Helsley, and the All-Star made quick work of the ninth for a 2-1 victory at Busch Stadium.

Helsley’s 44th save of the season ended the Cardinals’ losing streak to the rival Reds that had reached four games with Tuesday’s shutout loss. Helsley also put himself alone in Cardinals’ history with the fourth-most saves in a single season. The club record is 48 set in 2015 by Trevor Rosenthal, and with his next save Helsley will tie Bruce Sutter’s personal best as a Cardinal.

The Cardinals struck for their first lead of the series in the eighth Wednesday. Michael Siani revved the rally with a leadoff single. On the sixth pitch of Masyn Winn’s at-bat, Siani bolted for second. Farmer had already thrown over to first twice in an attempt to scoot Siani closer to the base, but using those two disengagements from the rubber just meant Siani could be more assertive with his lead.

Not even a pitch out could keep him from his 17th steal.

He scored easily on Goldschmidt’s double before the inning fizzled from there, eventually leaving the bases loaded and no margin for error in the top of the ninth.

Have fastball, will whiff

The back third of the Reds’ lineup greeted Lynn in the third inning with back-to-back singles to first disrupt his perfect return to the mound. With no outs, Cincinnati had two on and a willingness to steal whatever necessary to create a rally.

It took Lynn 11 pitches to regain control of the inning.

Yes, all of them were fastballs.

The veteran right-handed and unapologetic fastball-slinger struck out three consecutive Reds with two runners on to vaporize any chance they had of a rally in the inning. Both of the runners who reached base got into scoring position. Neither of them budged as Lynn struck out the top two batters in the Reds’ lineup — leadoff man Jonathan India and switch-hitting star Elly De La Cruz — on six pitches.

Lynn struck out No. 9 hitter Lucas Maile on five pitches, each of them a four-seam fastball or two-seamer. He zipped a similar mix of four-seam and sinkers past India for the second out of the inning.

De La Cruz saw three consecutive four-seam fastballs.

They hummed between 93.1 mph and 93.7 mph.

He did not connect on any of them.

Including the three strikeouts that inning, four of the times the Reds got a runner into scoring position against Lynn, he struck out the batter. In the fourth, a leadoff double and a steal combined with a two-out single to produce Cincinnati’s early 1-0 lead.

Arenado sends a souvenir direct to glove

The estimated distance of Nolan Arenado’s game-tying home run in the fourth inning was 402 feet.

If it had traveled two feet shorter, it might have been an interference call. If it had traveled two feet farther it wouldn’t have found a fan to catch it.

Arenado’s 16th homer of the season traveled over the center-field wall to knot the game, 1-1. A fan in the bleacher seats reached over the shrubbery atop the wall and gloved the line drive just before it planted in the green. Cincinnati did not challenge the plate when a replay of the hit clearly showed the fan did not reach into the field of play to make the catch. Arenado’s hit had enough on it to meet the fan just over the wall.

The home run moves Arenado a swing closer to continuing what’s been a staple of his career. This past year was the first full season since 2014 that he did not have at leas 30 home runs and at least 100 RBIs. He finished with 26 homers and 93 RBIs in 2023, and that was plenty enough to continue his streak of eight consecutive full seasons with at least 20 home runs.

Lynn reaches 2K

When Lynn reached the magic number of 85 pitches, manager Oliver Marmol walked out to the mound to check on the right-hander.

Whatever Lynn told his manager was enough for him to earn a milestone.

Added to the active roster Wednesday afternoon, Lynn missed several weeks due to right knee inflammation. He had pitched through pain and swelling in the knee at times throughout the season, but it became too sore and too restrictive to continue before going on the injured list. Lynn made one rehab start and several other outings to build pitch count, and the Cardinals were going to approach any pitches past 80 or 85 cautiously.

Lynn apparently assured Marmol he wasn’t tiring after a single put two runners on base for the Reds in the fifth inning.

Results backed that up.

Lynn struck out De La Cruz on a called third strike, and he got a fly ball from Spencer Steer to end the inning — and his start. The second strikeout of De La Cruz in the game gave Lynn, officially, 2,000 innings pitched in the majors. He is the sixth active player to reach that hallmark of a workhorse, joining such starting pitcher contemporaries as Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto and St. Louis-area native Max Scherzer.

A first-round pick by the Cardinals in 2008, Lynn debuted with them in 2011 and the first 977 2/3 innings of his career in the majors came with them before he began roaming the American League. With his return to the St. Louis this season, more than half of his 2,000 1/3 innings have come in a Cardinals uniform.

That one-third there ended the fifth inning and finished Lynn’s first start back from IL with one run allowed on five hits. He walked one and struck out seven in five innings.

Saggese snags a rocket

Two batters into his first start at second base in the majors, rookie Thomas Saggese got a chance to show both his feel and range at the position.

A few hours earlier, in his office at Busch Stadium, Marmol described how second base was where the versatile fielder appeared most comfortable during spring training. Saggese played second base well, though he has noted how the view he’s had most often on the baseball field since being a teenager was at shortstop. His big league debut Tuesday came at shortstop, and his first big league came Wednesday at second.

De La Cruz stung a pitch that left his bat at 112 mph.

Saggese darted to his left, dove, snagged the hotshot grounder, and got up with enough to throw a dart that beat the 64-steal De La Cruz to first base. That play helped Lynn zip through the first inning, and it was not Saggese’s last. He had a play to his right that took away a hit up the middle, and he ranged into shallow right field to make a catch on a popup before tumbling — but holding on for the out that got the tie game to the Cardinals’ top relievers.

©2024 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.