Leake beat Stanford last season 7-2. St. Louis hit him hard in a seven run fourth inning after Leake held them to two singles in the first three innings.
Jon Jay doubled then Albert Pujols, Matt Holiday, Colby Rasmus and Yadier Molina all singled, The latter was an infield single that loaded the bases.. Skip Schumaker, who missed two games with a sore wrist and the author of just three home runs, put one of Leake's pitches into the Reds bullpen. The grand slam was the first of his career. The Cardinals added a seventh run on Pujols' second single of the inning for their largest scoring inning of the year.
"They found some holes," Baker said. "They were still hitting ground balls like they were early. That was a quick six. They got six in a span of about 12 pitches. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to get anybody warmed up."
"They saw he was throwing strikes like that they changed their game plan. It was a sign of good hitting by them. There was only one real bad pitch that was the change up to Schumaker, who usually doesn't hit home runs."
Leake saw that the Cardinals were more aggressive.
"They were swinging at more first pitches. Maybe I have to find a way to make them swing at bad pitches early in the count," Leake said.
The pitch to Schumaker didn't upset the righthander. The big inning did.
"It wasn't even that bad a pitch. It was on the outer edge It could have been down a little more. I don't know if he was sitting on it or what. It was and ok pitch for the first pitch," Leake said. "The big inning has been that way for the last few outings. I have to find a way to not do that. When the same thing keeps happening, its not fun. I just have to stay focused."
The Reds have been concerned all year that Leake has never pitched this much in a season. He went straight from college to the major leagues without pitching in the minor leagues. In college the top pitchers just pitch on weekends.
He started 18 games at Arizona State last year and totaled 142 innings. This season already he has 21 starts with 129 2/3 innings.
"We've discussed that," Baker said. "He had a big inning in Pittsburgh but that was led by a couple different things, a hit batsman, a ground ball that wasn't played. We have to discuss it and talk about it some more, possibly tomorrow."
Leake won't use it as an excuse.
"I feel great. I'm not tired at all. I'm just hitting a rough patch," Leake said.
Meanwhile, Chris Carpenter was 10-3 lifetime against Cincinnati and 3-0 this season.
It took the Reds seven innings to solve him. Jay Bruce walked with one out and Ramon Hernandez doubled Bruce home. Pinch hitter, Juan Francisco, singled to left to get Hernandez home.
"He's pretty tough," Baker said. "He had his curveball working. But we hit some balls pretty good."
Carlos Fisher saved the Reds bullpen with 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He allowed two hits and two walks but struck out five. Bill Bray struck out two in one inning. Logan Ondrusek extended his scoreless streak to 22 innings.
The Reds hold a one game lead on the Cardinals in the Central Division of the National League.
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