The Reds Lost the Battle Drop Into a Tie for First, 8-4

The Reds played sloppy defense and had some sloppy base running.

They also got very few hits as the Cardinals shook off the war of words that turned physical in the bottom of the first.

Jonny Gomes dropped Felipe Lopez's game opening line drive, losing it in the early evening sun.  It was ruled an error but was later changed to a double.

Brandon Phillips expressed his genuine dislike for the St. Louis team before Monday night's game.  He called the Cardinals, "A bunch of whiny bitches.  Every one of them."  When he came to bat in the first inning he tapped catcher Yadier Molina's shin guards which is a custom.  Molina had some words of his own for Phillips and the benches emptied. It escalated into a real brawl with Scott Rolen, who tried to calm Molina, eventually exchanging shoves with Chris Carpenter.  Rolen is a former Cardinal, who left the team with bad feelings toward manager Tony La Russa.

Molina got the last laugh. He hit a home run in the second inning to put the Cardinals up 2-0 early against Johnny Cueto.  He ended up with two hits and two RBI.

Phillips singled in five at bats.  He is 1-for-9 in the series and has ended both games of this series with outs.


"To tell you the truth we lost, said Phillips, who had a chance to back down from his Monday comments but didn't..  "That's the only thing that really sucks.  It's all about wins.  We're in a race.  We didn't get key hits when we needed them.  We have the 'L" today.  We have to go out and win tomorrow."

The Reds scored two runs off Jaime Garcia in the third inning, the last coming on Joey Votto's hard single to right.

St. Louis took advantage of the Reds sloppy fielding by scoring three in the sixth, when Chris Heisey misplayed Colby Rasmus double.

The Red countered with two of its own when Drew Stubbs grounded a bases loaded single through the hole into left but veteran Jim Edmonds, another former Cardinal rounded the bases too far and was caught to end the rally.

The Cardinals put it away for good with three more in the seventh, the last scoring when Gomes over threw the plate.

I wasn't good baseball," said Baker, who was ejected along with La Russa after the fight.  "We didn't play good defense like we always do.  We made a lot of mistakes.  I hope we get it out of our system at once."

"Maybe we tried too hard but that's better than not trying hard enough," Baker continued.

The issue is the pennant race but the bad feelings will linger as the two teams battle for the division crown for the next six weeks.

"I don't think it was a big mystery that there was some tension before the game," said Rolen, who had a pre-interview meeting with Baker before the media crowded around his cubicle.  "I was tired before my first at bat.  I'm not going into specifics about the fight  It was two teams defending their own people and momentum was the problem."

Baker said, "Brandon tapped Molina on the shin guard like he always does.  Molina didn't like it."

Baker and La Russa exchanged words too.

"I said something to one of their coaches and La Russa told me not to talk to his coaches.  I said some things and he said some things.  The umpires didn't know who to eject.  They couldn't eject everyone.  I'd prefer that it would be us.  This is a big series.  I'd rather that than some of our players."

The question was did the psuedo riot effect the play on the field.

Cueto, who was seen kicking former Red, Jason LaRue in the head, said it did.

"When something like that happens, you want to beat the other team so much.  You try to throw harder and be perfect."

Rolen has his doubts but doesn't discount the theory.

"We're all human.  We have emotions.  You don't know how people react to a thing like that.  The most important event of the night, we lost. We have to put it behind us.  It happened.  It all happened. We try to move on and bounce back like we've done all year."