Votto leads Reds to 4-game sweep of Cardinals
CINCINNATI — Joey Votto had one of those frequent days when he hits everything hard — the last thing the St. Louis Cardinals needed at this point.
Votto had a two-run home run among his four hits, Adam Duvall had three hits off Mike Leake — his counterpart in one of Cincinnati’s rebuilding trades — and the Reds beat the Cardinals 5-2 on Thursday to complete a four-game sweep.
“Joey Votto is something else,” Reds starter Scott Feldman said. “I get a big kick out of watching his approach at the plate. You have to see him every day to appreciate how good he is. When he’s hot, there’s nobody better.”
The Reds hadn’t swept the Cardinals in four games since 2003 in Cincinnati, during the first season at Great American Ball Park. St. Louis has lost seven in a row overall for the first time since 2013.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who have been through runs like this,” Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said. “This is baseball. It’s heavy right now, there’s no doubt about it. In the long run, we’re going to snap out of this. It’s just hard finding what that key is.”
Feldman (5-4) limited the Cardinals’ slumping lineup to four singles in seven shutout innings. Matt Carpenter hit a two-run home run in the eighth off Austin Brice. Raisel Iglesias got his 12th save.
The Reds traded Leake (5-5) to the Giants for Duvall in 2015, and the right-hander signed with the Cardinals after that season. Leake has yet to beat his former team, going 0-4 in seven starts with a 4.79 ERA. The Cardinals have lost all seven games. Thursday’s games NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 5, St. Louis 2 San Francisco 9, Milwaukee 5, 10 innings Arizona 15, San Diego 3 Miami 7, Pittsburgh 1 Atlanta 3, Philadelphia 1 Colorado 4, Chicago Cubs 1 AMERICAN LEAGUE
LA Angels 11, Detroit 4 NY Yankees 9, Boston 1 Tampa Bay 7, Chicago White Sox 5 Houston 6, Kansas City 1 Minnesota at Seattle, (n) INTERLEAGUE Washington 6, Baltimore 1
Duvall had an RBI double in the fifth, Scooter Gennett followed with an RBI single and Yadier Molina’s throwing error let in another run. Votto connected off left-hander Tyler Lyons for his 16th home run an inning later, giving the Reds all the room they needed to finish the sweep.
The series highlight was Gennett becoming the 17th major leaguer to hit four home runs in a game during the Reds’ 13-1 victory on Tuesday night. In his next two games, he went 3 for 8 with three singles and an RBI.
Hunter Pence’s RBI single opened the scoring in a fourrun 10th inning, and San Francisco overcame a rough outing by closer Mark Melancon for a wild victory over host Milwaukee.
Chris Iannetta drove in a career-high seven runs with a home run and two doubles, and Arizona routed visiting San Diego to finish a three-game sweep.
Edinson Volquez followed his no-hitter by pitching seven scoreless innings and Miami beat host Pittsburgh.
R.A. Dickey allowed three hits in seven innings to earn his first victory in five weeks and lead Atlanta over Ben Lively and visiting Philadelphia.
Tyler Chatwood pitched four-hit ball over six innings, DJ LeMahieu hit a three-run home run and Colorado beat host Chicago for its season-high fifth consecutive victory.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Albert Pujols hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly to cap a four-run fifth inning and Los Angeles added six runs in the seventh, routing host Detroit.
Gary Sanchez homered twice to drive in five runs and New York pounded David Price again, one night after the visiting Boston ace had an angry exchange with a reporter.
Derek Norris homered in consecutive innings and Jake Odorizzi pitched into the seventh, leading host Tampa Bay to a victory over Chicago.
Lance McCullers took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Jose Altuve hit a two-run home run in a five-run ninth as visiting Houston beat Kansas City.
INTERLEAGUE
Joe Ross had a career-high 12 strikeouts in a sparkling performance, and weary Washington breezed past visiting Baltimore.