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Cardinals slip past Reds

Sep 27, 2008 - 4:43 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Troy Glaus delivered a sacrifice fly with one out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.

Glaus' fly ball to center field offset a two-run pinch homer by Javier Valentin that had tied the game at 6-6 with two outs in the top of the ninth.

The Cardinals set the stage for Glaus with one out in the ninth. Felipe Lopez hit a one-out single off Bill Bray (2-2) before Mike Lincoln came on to walk Albert Pujols and hit Ryan Ludwick with a pitch.

"This club is playing really hard right now," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We haven't always played well, but we played hard. I know we are going to play hard two more times."

Pujols had three hits, including his 36th home run, and two RBI for St. Louis.

"Albert got a couple of pitches to hit," La Russa said. "He is in the tradition of great Cardinal players. He is as great as anybody playing today. He shows it to you all the time. Just watch."

With the Cardinals trailing, 4-2, in the fifth inning, Pujols bashed a two-run shot that increased his RBI total to 114.

St. Louis took the lead in the sixth, when starting pitcher Braden Looper laced a triple to left field that scored Adam Kennedy, making it 5-4.

"It's cool to have a triple, I guess, but the big thing was to get the run in," Looper said.

"Bronson (Arroyo) pitched well except for a couple of the hits they got there," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "It looked like it was a triples night in left field. You just hate to lose it like that."

The righthander tossed seven innings, allowing four runs and seven hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

"I felt great," he said. "I made a few mistakes and they made me pay a couple of times."

Cesar Izturis lifted a sacrifice fly in the eighth to give St. Louis a two-run advantage.

With one out in the ninth, Danny Richar singled and stole second base. After Corey Patterson grounded out, moving Richar to third, Valentin crushed a pitch from Ryan Franklin (6-6) over the right field wall to tie the game.

The home run was Valentin's fourth of the season.

Arroyo lasted seven innings, yielding six runs and 13 hits. The righthander finished his 2008 season with an even 200 innings pitched and a 4.77 ERA.

"It's nice to get that four years in a row," Arroyo said of his innings total. "That's kind of a goal. Especially doing it the hard way this year. I'll take 199 with a win."

Baker played a numbers game in allowing Arroyo an extra inning.

"Ordinarily, you might hit for him in the seventh, but he was at 199 innings," Baker said. "It's tough to take a guy out with 199 innings."

La Russa had high praise for Arroyo.

"The great thing about a competitor like Bronson Arroyo is that he goes out there and he's going to compete," La Russa said.

Joey Votto hit his 23rd home run in the fourth for Cincinnati.