The Cardinals evened the weekend series with a 6-3 win over the Reds.
Tony Cingrani got off to a rough start.
Matt Carpenter opened the game with a double to the gap in leftcenterfield. An out later Matt Holliday singled Carpenter home.
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"At times he was very, very good but he lost the feel for the strike zone," manager Bryan Price said.
With boos over a long ago grievance faded from his ears, Yadier Molina hit his fifth home run of the season in the fourth inning.
"He hit a change up," Price said. "It wasn't a horrible pitch. Tony is getting a feel for the change up again. His velocity isn't there yet. He's not vintage Tony Cingrani yet."
The 2-0 lead looked like Mount Everest to the Reds until Brayan Pena started a mini-rally in the fifth with a double to the gap in rightcenter. The resurgent Zack Cozart singled to score Pena.
Cingrani lost his momentum and that of the Reds in the top of the sixth. Holliday hit his second single to lead off the inning, Cingrani walked Allen Craig. Molina hit a soft liner to left that Ryan Ludwick ran down for the second out with a sliding catch. Cingrani lost a battle with Jhonny Peralta and walked him to load the bases. With the bases loaded and one out, Mark Ellis gave Reds' fans pause with a deep fly to the warning track in front of the Reds' bullpen. Chris Heisey, giving Billy Hamilton a day off, ran it down as Holliday scored. Jon Jay singled past a diving Cozart to give St. Louis a 4-1 lead.
"I had pretty good command through the first five innings," Cingrani said. "I obviously don't want to walk people. They took advantage like they should."
The Reds fought back and came within inches of tying the contest.
"We didn't put enough pressure on Garcia early in the game," Price said. "I liked the way we fought back. It showed what we've got but we aren't giving our pitchers any margin for error."
Heisey missed his second home run of the season, hitting a line drive off the top of the leftfield wall. Todd Frazier singled hard to right with Heisey holding at third. Phillips nearly tied the game with a drive to rightcenter that bounced off the wall. Heisey scored but Frazier held third. Devin Mesoraco scalded a pitch by Garcia that looked like it was ticketed to rightfield but Mark Ellis snared the ball by jumping as high as he could go. Garcia fell behind Jay Bruce but struck him out. Carlos Martinez struck out Ludwick to end the threat.
J.J Hoover pitched a scoreless inning.
The Reds threatened again when Cozart singled with one out followed by pinch hitter Skip Schumaker's single. Martinez struck out Heisey and Frazier to protect the lead.
The Cardinals added on against Logan Ondrusek. Molina singled and Peralta walked. Ellis bunted them in scoring position. Sean Marshall came on and gave up run scoring singles to Jay and pinch hitter Matt Adams.
Ryan Ludwick opened the top of the ninth with his third home run of the season off Jason Motte.
The Reds haven't won more than three in a row, nor lost more than three in a row.
"We're treading water," Price said. "We have to start stringing some wins together."
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