St. Louis banged out 17 hits, the most that the Reds' staff has allowed this season, in forging a 6-6 tie in the season series with three to play in St. Louis on October 1,2 and 3.
The Cardinals had six batters with .300 batting averages or better at game time. The Reds had none, although Brandon Phillips (.294), Todd Frazier (.296) and Ryan Hanigan (.290) are close.
"Everybody in their lineup is a .300 hitter. I don't know who makes outs on that team," Phillips said.
The Reds are hoping to put the Cardinals away in the 30 games before then.
It was just the second series the Reds have lost since the All-Star break. The Reds have been without its star firstbaseman, Joey Votto, for a full quarter of a season but are 27-14 without him.
The Reds are 11-10 since closing a series with the Pirates three weeks ago. They have expanded the lead 1-1/2 since then.
Facing hard-hitting St. Louis toward the end of their toughest stretch of the season had predictable results for the Cincinnati Reds.
Matt Holliday had four hits and four RBIs, Allen Craig homered and drove in three runs as St. Louis handed the Reds just their second series loss in 13 sets since the All-Star break. The Cardinals have won five of six to move within six games of the NL Central-leading Reds, who are 8-6 going into the final three games of a grueling stretch of 17 games in 16 days that manager Dusty Baker called the toughest of the season.
"This was a tough series," Baker said. "This is a tough stretch for us. We knew it'd be tough."
Running into a hot pitcher didn't help. Adam Wainwright won his fifth consecutive start. Wainwright (13-10) allowed two runs and six hits in 5 2-3 innings while improving to 6-0 with a 1.80 ERA in his last seven starts overall. The 6-foot-7 right-hander, who missed all of last season because of elbow surgery, hasn't lost since July 18 at Milwaukee.
"Wainwright threw the ball well," Baker said. "There's not much else to say, except they beat us."
Reds right-hander Homer Bailey (10-9) gave up five runs in six innings while falling to 1-3 with a 6.04 ERA in five August starts. He also allowed a season-high nine hits for the sixth time.
The Cardinals strung together four consecutive ground-ball singles during a five-hit third inning that plated three runs. Skip Schumaker led off with a double to right-center, and Wainwright chipped in with a one-out single into left field. Schumaker scored on Jon Jay's base hit up the middle and Matt Carpenter singled to load the bases for Matt Holliday's two-run single to left.
"That's the way it goes," Bailey said. "I can hold my head up high. I was trying to get them to hit groundballs and get some double plays and keep the ball in the yard. It wasn't like I was all over the place. I didn't have any walks. You've just got to tip your cap to them."
St. Louis added two more runs in the sixth to make it 5-0. Holliday hit a leadoff triple before Craig drove a 1-2 pitch over the wall in left for his 20th homer.
Chris Heisey and Ryan Ludwick had RBI singles in the sixth for Cincinnati, which beat the Cardinals 8-2 on Saturday. Heisey is hitting .368 in his last nine appearances (7-for-19) with two doubles and three RBI.
Holliday doubled in a run in the seventh and singled in Carpenter in the ninth.
"It's a situation where they came in swinging the bats," Baker said of St. Louis, which finished with 42 hits in the series. "We couldn't put them away. The bounced some balls up the middle on (Bailey). You could tell they were trying to hit the ball up the middle. That was a good lesson on how to hit with runners in scoring position with two outs."
The Reds left after the game for a three-game series in Arizona before enjoying just their second day off in a span of 35. They finish the road trip with three games against Houston, which went into Sunday's games with the worst record in the majoe leagues.
"We've got to push and push the next three days," Baker said. "These are the dog days. We've got to finish strong in August."
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