Bronson Arroyo was back to his old self, getting ahead of hitters but he picked a bad time to allow his league leading 26th home run of the season.
Carpenter, batting eighth, hit a double to start the decisive fifth inning against Arroyo. Brandon Phillips aggressive defense cut Carpenter down on hard ground ball by Skip Schumaker. Daniel Descalso flied out to left. Jon Jay bunted. Arroyo, the gold glove winning pitcher, was off the mound quickly but he slipped and threw hit to first base. Jay was credited with a single and Arroyo was charged with a throwing error.
"I slipped, then I may have rushed a little because I didn't know where Jay was," Arroyo said. "If I don't slip, he's out by two steps."
Now, Arroyo had to face Pujols.
"I threw a change up that I thought was a strike on a 1-1 pitch. That made it 2-1. I threw a change up in to him to get back in the count. I've gotten him out a bunch of times with it. At best he's fouled them off. It wasn't a bad pitch but he's a big, strong guy. If he squares it up, he can hit it out, especially in this ballpark."
Pujols squared it and the three runs stood up.
"We had a lot of chances but Carpenter was able to pitch out of it," Dusty Baker said. "We had a couple base running mistakes. I want them to be aggressive but they have to pick the right times. They're still learning. We need to get better at getting runs home especially with the bases loaded."
Jay Bruce hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the third inning.
Drew Stubbs, who had three hits, walked with one out. Edgar Renteria singled for his second hit of the game. Joey Votto singled to score Stubbs and give the Reds a brief 1-0 lead.
The Reds loaded the bases when Phillips was safe on a fielder's choice that Carpenter threw too low to handle. Bruce grounded into the 6-3 twin killing.
The Reds had two on in the first with one out and came up empty. Chris Heisey and Stubbs took the Reds out of promising innings with base running blunders. Heisey got caught in no man's land between second and third when Ryan Hanigan grounded out. Stubbs strayed too far off second on a fly out by Renteria in the fifth.
"Pujols was the difference in the game. It's not always a mistake by the pitcher. He went down and got the pitch. It might have even been below the knees but it was the difference in the game," Baker said.
St. Louis scored an unnecessary insurance run in the seventh. Jay singled to score Schumaker.
The Reds haven't been able to put back-to-back wins together since June 15 when they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA. They slip back to four games off the pace set by the Cardinals.
"Most guys probably don't know how long its been since we won back-to-back games," Arroyo said. "We know we haven't had a hot streak. It's been one step forward and one step back."
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