Ryan Ludwick Blasts Reds to Win Over Cardinals

Up until the 10th inning Ryan Ludwick was having a bad day but it turned around on a hefty swing of the bat.

Ludwick hit the ninth pitch off Victor Marte on a low line drive that barely cleared the leftfield wall to give his Reds a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ludwick was 0-for-4 when he stepped to the plate with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning.  He fell behind in the count at 0-2 but fouled off some good sliders and laid off some close fastballs before picking on a Marte slider to hit his 13th home run of the season and the fifth walk-off home run of his career.

"I knew I hit it good," Ludwick said.  "I didn't think it was high enough to clear the wall."

Ludwick played for St. Louis from 2007-2010.

"It was nice to hit one off them.  I would be lying if I said it wasn't.  I have a lot of respect for them," Ludwick said.

Marte threw him a slider on the first pitch.

"It was a good pitch to hit but I was looking for a fastball," Ludwick said.  "From then on I was looking for a slider.  He threw me two fastballs in and off the plate and a good one up and in that I fouled down the thirdbase line.  I don't know how I got the bat on it."

The slider came in as he was looking for it and he didn't miss it.

"That was right on time," Dusty Baker said.  "Luddy's been one of our hottest hitters for the last month.  He's had some big hits for us and that one was huge."

The Reds jumped ahead of Kyle Lohse, a former Cincinnati pitcher, after he and Mike Leake dueled to a scoreless tie through four innings.

Brandon Phillips singled with two outs in the fifth.  Jay Bruce clubbed his second double to rightfield to allow Phillips to race to the plate.

Scott Rolen hit the second of his two singles to open the sixth.  Devin Mesoraco singled behind Rolen to right.  Leake laid down a good sacrifice bunt to put them on second and third.  Zack Cozart hit a sacrifice fly to score Rolen.

The Cardinals fought back in the seventh.

Yadier Molina, homered to left to start the inning with loud boos ringing in his ears.

David Freese singled and Skip Schumaker doubled to put the Cards in business.

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny sent Lance Berkman up to pinch hit.  Berkman has a picture in every post office in Cincinnati as public enemy, number one for his many years of Red bashing.

Baker brought on Sean Marshall.  Marshall struck Berkman out in his first at bat in two months with a big sweeping curve ball.  Rafael Furcal wasn't going to let the opportunity slip and bunted to first on a safety squeeze scoring freeze to tie the game.

The last three innings were a battle of the bullpens.

Logan Ondrusek delivered the Reds from the seventh inning by preserving the tie but ran afoul in the eighth as he walked the bases loaded.  Bill Bray bailed him out with a great pitch to force a pop up by Tyler Greene.

Aroldis Chapman did his thing in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts after walking Furcal.  He got All-Star Carlos Beltran on a little dribbler that rolled onto the plate.  Mesoraco pounced on it and tagged Beltran out in the righthanders batter's box.

Barrett Browning, Mitchel Boggs, Fernando Salas and Marc Rzepczynski held off the Reds until Marte was summoned.

"To win these one run games like this you need production from your bullpen," Baker said.  "Whenever someone got in trouble another guy came in and bailed him out."

Sam LeCure earned the win with a perfect 10th, striking out Molina and Freese.