Cardinals Sweep 6-1

The war of words was of little consequence.  The St. Louis Cardinals with their ace Adam Wainwright on the mound embarrassed the Cincinnati Reds in front of their home crowd to regain first place.

Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker dismissed the effects of Brandon Phillips ill conceived comments but stated the obvious.  "They out pitched us and out hit us. What was the winning percentage of their starters?  It was something stupid."

It was even stupider after Wainwright threw seven shutout, shutdown, shutup innings.  He did allow two singles in improving his record to 17-6.  This was after Chris Carpenter improved to 13-3 and Jaime Garcia won to give him a 10-5 mark.  That is 40-14 or .740.

Cincinnati ace Bronson Arroyo pitched 4 2/3 innings without allowing a run but with two outs in the fifth Jon Jay Jay doubled.  The Reds elected to walk Albert Pujols intentionally as many talk show hosts demand.  The Cardinals showed why this is not the brilliant strategy that some think.  Arroyo walked Matt Holliday.  Then got ahead of Colby Rasmus 0-2.  Rasmus fouled some tough pitches and worked the count full.  Rasmus connected and launched a high arching grand slam, the first of his career to dead center.

Arroyo was done.  Wainwright continued and the only thing that could stop him was 46 minutes of rain.

The Cardinals added two more on a walk and three straight singles off Jordan Smith in the seventh until the rain started.

The Reds nicked the Cardinals for one run with two outs in the eighth, singles by Phillips, Paul Janish and Joey  Votto put the Reds in the scoring column.

"It's not the end of the world," Baker said.  He underscored what he said before the series even started.  "We have 40 something games left and three more at their place.  There is a long way to go."