None of that mattered much once the lineups took the field. St. Louis carried a hot week into the nightcap after wins of 11-4 and 8-4 over the Cubs, while Cincinnati arrived already down a game on the day and hunting for any kind of answer against a Cardinals pitching staff that's quietly been excellent.
St. Louis did its damage immediately, plating both runs in the first inning and never trailing. Cincinnati clawed one back in the fourth, but that was the extent of it — the Reds finished with 3 hits against 7 for the Cardinals, and St. Louis' bullpen made the finish stand up.
It's the kind of finish that's become a theme in Cincinnati. The Reds have dropped 3 straight, a stretch defined less by any single bad game than by an offense that keeps going quiet at the wrong times. St. Louis, meanwhile, has won 4 of its last 5, a run that started against Philadelphia and carried through a series against Chicago before landing on Cincinnati.
The injury report tells a lot of the story here too. Cincinnati is already without Greene for the rest of the year and is nursing Williamson, Blake Dunn and Graham Ashcraft back from their own long absences, while Spencer Steer only just had the splint taken off his wrist. St. Louis has its own absences in Ramon Urias and Max Rajcic, but neither was needed Monday — the Cardinals simply have more healthy difference-makers to lean on right now.
Both clubs are on the outside of the playoff picture with a season that's thinning by the day, but this one's worth filing away for a different reason: Lowder turned in another solid start even in a loss, and that trend line is worth watching the next time these two see each other.