Hitting, fielding, pitching all lacking in Cardinals’ loss to Reds

After breaking free for 10 runs on 10 hits Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense took another backwards step Sunday in an 8-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Cardinals collected six hits against three pitchers and were blanked for the second time in their season-opening homestand before 45,200.

“After coming off a good game (Saturday), we were hopeful that would be kind of the key to spark a good, long roll,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “But we just had trouble getting anything going today.”

St. Louis is 2-4 and has scored five runs in its losses. The Cardinals’ team batting average is .208 and they have just three homers, two of them by Aledmys Diaz.

“We’re a good lineup. We know we are,” infielder Jedd Gyorko said. “But six games, we didn’t swing the bats that well. We know what we’re capable of doing. We just have to go out and get hot — guy getting on leading to another guy and keeping the line moving. We’ll be fine.”

Scott Feldman (1-1), who outdueled Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez (0-1), allowed four hits in six-plus innings, with one walk and six strikeouts.

The Cardinals had just one runner reach third base.

“It’s just getting adjusted,” right fielder Randal Grichuk said. “Back in night games. Back in regular season. We showed we could hit in spring training. I’m not worried about it.”

Matheny isn’t either — yet, that is.

“If we can’t get anything going offensively, it doesn’t matter who we play,” Matheny said. “We have the potential to score a lot of runs.”

Fielders struggle, too

The Cardinals’ were shaky in the field, too, as they were charged with three errors, all of them coming in the sixth when the Reds broke open the game.

Third baseman Jhonny Peralta had two errors on the same play. First he mishandled a grounder by Eugenio Suarez, then made the situation worse with an off-balanced throw to no one in particular at second that allowed Joey Votto to score.

Grichuk then bobbled Scott Schebler’s double in right, permitting Suarez to score from first.

“I remember in Detroit making three errors (in a game),” Peralta said. “It happens to everybody. Today, I made a really dumb play.

“It’s nothing at all to worry about — our defense. It happens in the game. It happens to every team. It happened today to us. The season is really long. We’ll see what happens in the season. There’s a lot of games to play. We feel confident. Errors happen in the game. We don’t need to worry about it. Tomorrow is another day.”

The Cardinals had one error entering Sunday.

“I would hate to think that (poor defense) is going to be the talk of our team right now, because that’s not true,” Matheny said. “This is going to be a good defensive team.”

Martinez not himself

Martinez, who a week earlier had thrown 7  1/3  scoreless innings and struck out 10 in a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day, yielded six runs (five earned) on six hits in five-plus innings against the Reds. He walked one and struck out three in an 89-pitch outing.

Adam Duvall put the Reds ahead for good with a leadoff homer to left in the second, connecting on an 88-mph changeup from Martinez.

Zack Cozart had an RBI triple in the fifth to make it 2-0 before the wheels came off in Cincinnati’s four-run sixth against Martinez and Brett Cecil.

“His stuff looked pretty good,” Matheny said of Martinez. “It just looked like he had trouble really putting it where he really wanted to. That was the difference between today and a week ago. He was so sharp putting pitches where he wanted to (against the Cubs).”

Oh allows homer

Closer Seung Hwan Oh pitched in mopup duty in the ninth and surrendered a home run to Joey Votto. Oh has been touched for two homers in two games and 2  2/3  innings. Last season, as a rookie, Oh allowed five home runs in 76 games and 79  2/3  innings.

“He’s not at his sharpest right now, but we know what we’ve got with him,” Matheny said. “He’s going to be one of the best in the game this year, too. We’ll just keep getting him the work that he needs to get sharp.”

Cardinals relievers have permitted six homers, accounting for 11 runs. Cecil, Jonathan Broxton, Kevin Siegrist and Sam Tuivailala also have been victimized by the long ball.

“I think giving up walks, giving up free bases, giving up hard-hit balls, all those are concerning,” Matheny said. “But we know we have a good bullpen. It’s a lot like our offense. We’ve got to get something positive rolling.”　

This story was originally published April 9, 2017 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Hitting, fielding, pitching all lacking in Cardinals’ loss to Reds."