2012 final series: Cardinals march for wild card triumphant despite Reds by 3-1 win
With the win in the first game, the St. Louis Cardinals were looking for another victory here to easily make their way into the Wild Card game. However, the Reds staged a comeback and beat the Cardinals, but that could not stop the Cardinals from booking
a spot in the wild card berth.
With the Los Angeles defeat earlier, the Cardinals had already made it for Friday’s wild card game against the Detroit Tigers.
"It's a great feeling. It's a wonderful accomplishment," general manager John Mozeliak said. "I couldn't be more proud of these guys and especially Mike Matheny for what he was able to do with his leadership."
Even though the Cardinals were defeated here, there was already enough in the air to know the Cardinals had made it to the wild card.
"I think they realized how special this is," Matheny said. "You can't take these for granted. We were talking about it being kind of subdued and it was, but they're still proud. And had every right to be."
However, the game began with Matt Holliday’s first inning sacrifice fly hit, giving the Cardinals 1-0 lead. But afterwards, it was the same Mat Latos who pitched five strong innings, surrendering only a run and giving up four hits to pave the way for the
Reds victory.
Cardinals Chris Carpenter, the pitcher who had once been said to be out of the season due to the surgery that he underwent, came to pitch six innings, allowing three runs.
Carpenter gave up seven hits as the Reds batters tried to exert themselves, snatching a victory here a night after they were defeated by the Cardinals. It was Scott Rolen who smashed a homer in the fourth to tie the score after Matt Holliday had hit a sacrifice
fly in the opening inning.
Jay Bruce made it 2-1 with his RBI single to centre and Dioner Navarro too hit an RBI to take the lead to 3-1 for the Reds. With the lead that the Reds secure, the bullpen had to play a key role to maintain the team’s hold on the game. So they did.
Sam LeCure did his bit 1.1 strong inning followed by Sean Marshall who also pitched a scoreless one inning. Jonathan Broxton allowed only a hit and then Aroldis Chapman came to pitch the ninth inning, at a time when the Reds had 3-1 lead.
Chapman had 38th save of the season, bringing another victory for the Reds here, to allow the Reds to win a total of 97 wins in the season out 161 games that they had played so far.
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