Cincinnati Reds pound St. Louis Cardinals 8-2 as Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips shine - MLB Update
Right-fielder Jay Bruce and second baseman Brandon Phillips help the Cincinnati Reds rout the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2 at Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 2012 in the second game of the three match series.
From the beginning, both sides started slowly. Until the end of the fifth inning, it appeared that the game will be a low scoring one. However, Reds all of a sudden overwhelmed Cardinals with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, surging to the lead as
a result.
Making sure that whatever counter-attack Cardinals put up late in the innings proves too little, they substantiated their lead in the seventh with four more runs and ended up beating them comprehensively.
Mike Leake started for Cincinnati. Despite the fact he struggled to contain hits, he managed to contain the Cardinals from scoring too many runs in the game. He threw little more than six innings and yielded 10 hits. He gave up just two runs and struck-out
three on Saturday.
Reds’ manager Dusty Baker praises Leake and believes that his contribution was decisive. Leake can draw positives from the game and can use them for putting up great performances ahead in the season.
"He had that at 'em ball going," Baker said. "That's what happens when you throw strikes. That was the start he needed and we needed. We're trying to get him back to .500. He was masterful. We got (the Cardinals) back to where they were when they started
from when they came in."
Offensively, Bruce stood up for the team along with Phillips and the third baseman Scott Rolen. Bruce struck one hit in three at-bats and contributed three RBIs on Saturday.
Phillips was equally impressive on the plate. He managed three hits in five at-bats while adding two RBIs. He also hammered a home-run in the match.
Meanwhile Phillips comments on the Cardinals and the ability of their batters to score runs for the team.
"They're still hungry," Phillips said. "They can hit. You look up at the scoreboard and everybody's hitting .300. I don't know who's making outs for them."
The last game of the series is going to be interesting to watch. Let’s see which team comes out on top.
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