ST. LOUIS (AP) — The movement of Anthony DeSclafani’s pitches can be his best weapon or his worst enemy. It was the latter Wednesday night.

“I feel like I haven’t really been sharp the past couple of outings and once again today kind of struggling,” DeSclafani said after the Cincinnati Reds lost 3-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals. “I felt like I was able to get ahead of some guys and not able to put them away and then fall back in the count or got behind in the count early.”

Matt Carpenter drove DeSclafani’s second pitch of the game 391 feet over the wall in right field.

DeSclafani (6-1) took his first loss of the season and in his career in five appearances against St. Louis. The three runs he gave up in five innings equaled the three total he gave up in his three previous starts against the Cardinals spanning 19 innings.

“I feel like I kind of beat myself tonight,” DeSclafani said. “Not discrediting them at all because obviously they’re a great team and a great organization and they’ve got some big-time hitters there, but I felt like I didn’t execute to the best of my ability at all. And that’s what good teams do, they capitalize on certain situations and that’s what they did.”

Reds manager Bryan Price said the right-hander had trouble with his two-seam fastball control.

“It’s a blessing, a curse with all that movement,” Price said. “Commanding it is a big challenge and there’s days where he’s spot on and other days where it’s running a little bit more than usual, but all in all he really did compete well.”

Eugenio Suarez’s solo homer in the fourth for the Reds was his first since July 25.

Cardinals left-hander Jaime Garcia (9-8) needed just 85 pitches to get through 8-plus innings and 19 of his 24 outs were ground balls or strikeouts. The lefty has given up two runs in his last 16 innings.

Shortstop Greg Garcia had nine putouts. Greg Garcia and Jhonny Peralta, who played third, made back-to-back stellar defensive plays to get Jaime Garcia out of the eighth.

“Those ground balls, he had a lot early in the count,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “Guys thought they saw it and it would just dance out of the zone at the last second.”

Peralta’s solo homer in fourth was the 200th of his career. Peralta is hitting .345 in August.

Seung-Hwan Oh earned his 10th save in 11 tries.

Price tipped his cap to Jaime Garcia.

“We’ve seen him really, really good in the past; we’ve seen him other times where he’s a little more vulnerable with his command and up in the zone, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights,” Price said. “There wasn’t much there and Anthony certainly wasn’t on top of his game and still was able to go out there and be able to compete and keep it close. We just weren’t able to do much with Garcia.”

STILL STREAKING

Yadier Molina’s single in the sixth extended his streak of reaching base safely to 23 games. It is the longest streak by a Cardinals catcher since Gene Tenace reached in 35 straight games between 1981 and 1982.

WEB GEM

Reds second baseman Tony Renda made a diving stop on Matt Holliday’s hit up the middle. Renda was able to throw out Holliday at first saving a run.

OMINOUS ANNIVERSARY

Six years ago, the Cardinals and Reds got into an infamous brawl in Cincinnati sparked by comments made by Brandon Phillips about the St. Louis organization. Cardinals catcher Jason LaRue suffered a concussion during the melee and never played again.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Reds: RHP Alfredo Simon (trapezius) and RHP A.J. Morris (straight shoulder) were scheduled to make their second rehab appearance for Triple-A Louisville.

Cardinals: 1B Matt Adams (left shoulder soreness) was a lineup scratch several hours before game-time. Peralta replaced him at sixth in the order playing third base and Carpenter moved to first base.

UP NEXT

Reds: Homer Bailey has permitted seven runs in 8 2-3 innings his first two starts of the season.

Cardinals: Carlos Martinez gets the call in the opener of a four-game series at Chicago. In two starts against the Cubs this year, both at home, he’s 1-1 with a 5.25 ERA.

Cardinals 3, Reds 2

Cincinnati AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Hamilton cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .255

Cozart ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 .267

Votto 1b 4 1 2 0 0 0 .293

Duvall lf 3 0 1 0 1 1 .240

Suarez 3b 4 1 1 1 0 0 .239

Renda 2b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .222

Holt rf 3 0 0 0 0 1 .216

Barnhart c 3 0 1 0 0 1 .262

DeSclafani p 2 0 1 0 0 1 .174

Smith p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250

Diaz p 0 0 0 0 0 0 —

a-De Jesus ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .229

Wood p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

Totals 32 2 6 1 1 5

 

St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Carpenter 1b 3 2 2 1 1 0 .297

Wong 2b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .243

Moss rf-lf 4 0 1 1 0 2 .259

Holliday lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 .241

Piscotty rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .278

Molina c 4 0 1 0 0 1 .281

Peralta 3b 4 1 1 1 0 2 .247

Hazelbaker cf 3 0 1 0 1 0 .247

G.Garcia ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 .259

J.Garcia p 2 0 1 0 1 0 .200

Oh p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

Totals 32 3 9 3 3 8

 

Cincinnati 000 100 001 = 2 6 0

St. Louis 101 100 00x = 3 9 0

 

a-grounded out for Diaz in the 8th.

LOB—Cincinnati 4, St. Louis 8. 2B—Votto (20), Barnhart (17), Moss (18), Hazelbaker (6). 3B—Carpenter (6). HR—Suarez (18), off J.Garcia; Carpenter (15), off DeSclafani; Peralta (6), off DeSclafani. RBIs—Suarez (52), Carpenter (56), Moss (47), Peralta (17).

Runners left in scoring position—Cincinnati 1 (Cozart); St. Louis 4 (Holliday 3, G.Garcia). RISP—Cincinnati 1 for 5; St. Louis 1 for 9.

Runners moved up—Suarez. GIDP—Suarez.

DP—St. Louis 1 (Peralta, Wong, Carpenter).

 

Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

DeSclafani L, 6-1 5 6 3 3 2 5 96 3.11

Smith 1 1-3 2 0 0 1 1 38 3.90

Diaz 2-3 0 0 0 0 0 4 3.63

Wood 1 1 0 0 0 2 15 3.31

 

St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

J.Garcia W, 9-8 8 6 2 2 1 4 85 3.93

Oh S, 10-12 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 2.03

J.Garcia pitched to 2 batters in the 9th.

Inherited runners-scored—Diaz 2-0, Oh 2-1.

Umpires—Home, Angel Hernandez; First, Will Little; Second, Ted Barrett; Third, Lance Barksdale.

T—2:42. A—40,019 (43,975).