The St. Louis Cardinals got to the Cincinnati Reds bullpen in the first inning, thanks to some astute managing from Tony La Russa, and made the most of it, scoring four runs in the first five innings to beat the Reds by a score of 4-2. Kyle McClellan came in after the first batter and went six solid innings for the win; Mitchell Boggs came in to get his second save in as many tries since the Cardinals demoted a struggling Ryan Franklin.
Brandon Phillips, engaged in a Twitter war of words with Cardinals fans earlier in the week, went 2-5 with a home run to pace the Reds, who were forced to play without scheduled starter Edinson Volquez after he went through a full warmup prior to a long rain delay.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, sensing that play would be stopped shortly, made an extremely late scratch of his starter, McClellan, going with reliever Miguel Batista at the last minute. Batista only threw six pitches before the rain came down, and when play resumed McClellan was ready. It made all the difference.
Albert Pujols drove in two in the win; Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman doubled for the Cardinals, who improve to 11-9 and continue to lead the National League Central.