The Cincinnati Reds scored three times in the top of the 10th inning to take a 5-3 win against the host St. Louis Cardinals in the rubber match of a three-game set on Sunday.
Andrew Abbott allowed two runs on three hits and fanned four in six innings for the Reds. Brock Burke (4-4) retired all four batters he faced in the eighth and ninth and Julian Garcia picked up his first career save.
Cardinals starting pitcher Kyle Leahy struck out a career-high nine batters while holding Cincinnati to two runs on six hits in six innings.
With Tyler Stephenson on as the automatic runner, a wild pitch from Matt Svanson (2-3) moved him to third and Sal Stewart singled to drive him home to give the Reds a 3-2 edge.
Elly De La Cruz singled, and he and Stewart advanced a base on a sacrifice bunt from Edwin Arroyo.
Svanson was then replaced by Justin Bruihl, who intentionally walked Eugenio Suarez to fill the bases, and Nathaniel Lowe singled, scoring Stewart and De La Cruz for a 5-2 advantage.
St. Louis narrowed it to 5-3 on an Alec Burleson single that drove in automatic runner JJ Wetherholt.
The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Burleson opened the frame with a double, and Masyn Winn singled up the middle to give the hosts runners on the corners with nobody out. Burleson then came around to score on Jose Fermin’s sacrifice fly.
De La Cruz pulled the Reds even in the top of the third, belting a slider 410 feet into the seats in left-center field to make it 1-1, his 18th home run of the season.
Ivan Herrera put St. Louis in front 2-1 in the bottom half when he launched a sweeper to the same spot as De La Cruz.
After the Cardinals and Reds each failed to capitalize on a pair of baserunners in their respective half of the fourth, Ke’Bryan Hayes tied it 2-2 in the top of the fifth on a solo shot over the wall in left field.
