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Taguchi comes through in ninth to lift Cardinals past Reds

Jun 6, 2007 - 6:04 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- So Taguchi singled to right field in the bottom of the ninth inning to drive in the winning run and lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday.

With one out and a runner on third base, Taguchi fouled off five consecutive pitches from rookie Jon Coutlangus before lining a 3-2 pitch, the 11th of the at-bat, just short of the warning track in right to score Aaron Miles.

Miles led off the ninth with a walk against rookie Jared Burton (0-1), moved to second on a sacrifice by David Eckstein and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Coutlangus, setting the stage for Taguchi.

"(So's) a terrific late-game player," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He's just absolutely cool under pressure. He can make a lot of things happen."

"I just wanted to have fun," Taguchi said. "It's kind of a tough situation. I just tried to take my swing. Don't think too much and stay focused on the ball."

Reds manager Jerry Narron was upset with the way the ninth inning started.

"It's disappointing," Narron said. "When the leadoff (hitter) there in the ninth had one base on balls in 70 at-bats hitting lefthanded and you walk him on four pitches, that's a little disappointing."

Jason Isringhausen (3-0) walked two and struck out two in the ninth to pick up the win. St. Louis took a 2-0 lead with a run in each of the first two innings. Jim Edmonds doubled home Eckstein in the first inning and Eckstein drove in Juan Encarnacion with a single to left in the second.

The Reds tied the game in the fourth without the benefit of a base hit as they got plenty of help from Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer. After walking the bases full to start the inning, Wellemeyer struck out the next two batters. He could not escape the inning unscathed as he walked rookie Norris Hopper to force home Encarnacion.

"I hit a wall and couldn't throw a strike in the fourth," said Wellemeyer who threw 36 pitches in the fourth inning. "I was just yanking it out of the zone."

Tyler Johnson came on to relieve Wellemeyer after the walk to Hopper and promptly threw a wild pitch, allowing Scott Hatteberg to score and tie the game 2-2.

"You don't see many innings where you score two runs and you have four base on balls and three punch outs." Narron said.

Encarnacion put the Cardinals back in front with a solo home run in the sixth to make it 3-2. Leading off the frame, Encarnacion deposited a 2-0 pitch from Cincinnati starter Aaron Harang over the wall in left field.

"The ball stayed over the middle of the plate," Harang said. "It's going to happen in that situation. You don't want to fall behind 3-0, you just try to throw a pitch good enough that he might hit it on the ground. It stayed over the middle of the plate and he hit it good."

Harang yielded three runs and seven hits in six innings with no walks and seven strikeouts. Adam Dunn tied the game in the seventh with a RBI single for the Reds.

"You just hate to see an L come when you have your horse going," Reds catcher Cody Ross said. "(Harang) threw well enough to win and we didn't capitalize. That how this game goes. It's going that way a lot for us."

The Reds struggled with runners in scoring position going 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts while leaving a season high 15 runners on base as they lost for the fourth time in the past five games.

"We had our chances," Narron said. "It would have been nice to have a hit with the bases loaded some where in there. We had a couple of chances."