Slumping Cardinals drop third straight to Reds 5-1

CINCINNATI -- Sometimes, when Lance Lynn makes mistakes, hitters still pop them up.

Skip Schumaker popped Lynn's Saturday mistake into the right field seats.

Schumaker hit a three-run homer, rookie Anthony DeSclafani pitched six strong innings and the Cincinnati Reds won their second game of the day, beating the struggling St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Saturday.

The first-place Cardinals have lost the first three games of this four-game series. Their lead over Pittsburgh in the NL Central fell to three games before the Pirates hosted Milwaukee on Saturday night.

Earlier, Adam Duvall's two-run homer in the eighth lifted the Reds to a 4-2 win in the completion of a game suspended in the eighth by rain on Friday.

Schumaker, a former Cardinal, hit his first homer since Aug. 13 of last season.

"We have to disrupt a little bit of what's going on in this race," he said. "To have fun around here, we have to beat teams going to the playoffs. It's nice to hit one against the organization that I respect the most."

St. Louis is 3-8 in September after three straight losses to the last-place Reds, who today can finish off their first four-game sweep of the Cardinals since 2003.

Lynn agreed that a losing streak looks worse down the stretch.

"It's a good thing it's the beginning of the month," he said. "We'll see where we are at the end of the month. It's a good thing the season goes a couple of days into October."

Joey Votto, who is appealing the two-game suspension he was handed Friday for his altercation with plate umpire Bill Welke on Wednesday, electrified the sellout crowd of 41,187 with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh that Jason Heyward tracked down a step in front of the center field wall.

The Cardinals committed two errors to push their total to five in the first three games of the series.

Rain fell during the middle innings of the scheduled game and again in the eighth and ninth, but not heavy enough to interrupt play.

DeSclafani (9-10) bounced back from giving up hits to the first three Cardinals, including Heyward's RBI single, to strike out the next three and go on to retire 15 straight batters.

"That was a good start," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said of the Cardinals' first. "It's a shame three strikeouts had to follow. Strikeouts hurt us today."

DeSclafani finished with one walk and a career-high 10 strikeouts in six innings.

"DeSclafani found his curveball and fastball command after the first three batters," manager Bryan Price said. "He's a tough kid. I'm really happy with his makeup."

Tony Cingrani, Burke Badenhop and Jumbo Diaz combined to finish the game.

Lynn, coming off his second-shortest appearance of the season, opened with four hitless innings before Eugenio Suarez and Tucker Barnhart started the fifth with singles. Those set up Schumaker's two-out shot to right. Lynn (11-10) allowed four hits in six innings.

Barnhart added an insurance run with a single in the eighth.

King's day

Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann presented career hits leader Pete Rose with a key to the city and proclaimed Saturday "Pete Rose Day." Friday was the 30th anniversary of Rose's record-setting hit. A Rose bobblehead helped attract a sellout crowd.

Suspended

Cardinals C Cody Stanley was suspended for 80 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

Stanley, 26, spent most of this season at Triple-A Memphis, but was promoted to St. Louis when major league rosters expanded on Sept. 1. It is the seventh suspension announced this year under the big league program.

Major League Baseball said Stanley tested positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. The suspension is effective immediately.

Trainer's room

Cardinals: RHP Matt Belisle was reinstated from the disabled list on Saturday. Belisle had been out since June 26 with right elbow inflammation.

Reds: Billy Hamilton's two stolen bases in the first game were his first since Aug. 18. He was activated from the disabled list on Tuesday after missing 19 games with a sprained right shoulder.

Up next

Cardinals: RHP Michael Wacha (15-5) makes his first start since tying his single-game career high by allowing six runs on six hits in four innings of Tuesday's 8-5 loss to the Cubs.

Reds: Rookie RHP Raisel Iglesias (3-7) is coming off his shortest appearance of the season, lasting just three innings in a 7-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.