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Encarnacion drives Reds past Cardinals

Sep 17, 2008 - 4:30 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Edwin Encarnacion delivered a three-run double in the sixth inning to key the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.

Trailing, 1-0, in the sixth, Cincinnati loaded the bases and Encarnacion promptly cleared them with a deep drive to left field that gave the Reds a two-run advantage.

"I was just trying to bury the split and throw it over the plate down, and I just left it up a little bit," Cardinals starter Braden Looper said. "It wasn't a real bad pitch. It was almost like he was sitting on it, and he made me pay. It's just very unfortunate, very frustrating. I felt like I was in control, and I sat down when it was over wondering what just happened."

After Aaron Miles hit his fourth home run of the season to draw the Cardinals within one in the seventh, Danny Richar added an insurance run with an RBI groundout in the bottom half.

The Reds busted open the game by batting around and scoring three runs in the eighth.

Encarnacion drew a walk to start the rally. He moved to second on a single by Joey Votto and Jeff Keppinger delivered an infield hit to load the bases.

Corey Patterson drilled a two-run double to deep right, making it 6-2. Jolbert Cabrera was walked to re-load the bases and Javier Valentin also walked to force in a run and cap the scoring.

Bronson Arroyo (15-10) pitched seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits while striking out four. David Weathers pitched a scoreless eighth and Francisco Cordero retired the side in the ninth.

"I've said for a while that 15 wins, 20 quality starts and 200 innings are always goals coming in," Arroyo said. "I've gotten 200 innings a few times and 20 quality starts a couple of times. It was definitely big to get that 15th win and get over that plateau, finally."

Red manager Dusty Baker was glad to see Arroyo come up with a solid effort.

"Sometimes you're not proud of how you're pitching," Baker said. "Sometimes it wakes you up."

Arroyo credits his sinker for much of his success.

"After these guys see me for a long time, it always becomes a big old chess match," said Arroyo, who established a career high in wins. "You can almost see their guy at the plate thinking and guessing if it's going to be a fastball away or breaking ball away.

"Me being able to bring something new to the table the last couple of months, I can see the look on guys' faces when they're swinging and missing on my sinker."

Looper (12-13) yielded four runs and six hits in seven frames. The righthander struck out five and walked one.

St. Louis opened the scoring in the second, when Troy Glaus belted his 24th homer of the season.

"Clearly, we've backed ourselves into a little bit of a corner here," Glaus said of the Cardinals, who are five games behind the New York Mets in the wild card chase. "But the numbers still dictate it's possible. And as such, you have to play the game assuming you're trying to move on and get into the playoffs and win as many games as you possibly can."

The Cardinals have won one of their last 11 on the road, a fact that has not been lost on manager Tony La Russa.

"It's kind of ironic," said La Russa, whose team owned a 37-28 road mark on August 16. "We had the best road record in the league, and then all of a sudden, we're having real struggles. But I think the way we're going right now, it's just a rough stretch. We're having trouble putting good things together."