McCoy: Reds shutout by Cardinals, fall 3 games back of Mets for final NL playoff spot

And there are no Miracle Workers in sight.

After scoring 11 runs on 13 hits Monday, they put away their bats Tuesday and probably put away their season.

The game was all about St. Louis pitcher Michael McGreevy and backup shortstop Thomas Saggese.

McGreevy held the Reds to three hits and no runner found third base as the Reds were shutout for the 13th time this season. It was the 32nd time they scored one run or less and the 49th time they’ve scored two or fewer.

Saggese is a fill-in shorstop, pushed into duty last week when regular shortstop Masyn Winn went down with injury.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Reds starter Andrew Abbott was forced to throw 29 pitches in the first inning and Saggese was a big part of it, seeing nine pitches before poking a single.

With two outs and nobody on in the third, Abbott gave up a single to Alec Burleson. He went to 3-and-2 on Saggese and he lobbed a 391-foot home run over the left field wall.

Saggese’s home run, only his second of the season, gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead and McGreevy plus relief pitchers JoJo Romero and Riley O’Brien took it from there.

“I would only take one sequence back and that would be to Saggese,” Abbott told reporters after the game. “I had two options. I got to 3-and-2 with a fastball and I thought we’d go back to a fastball or throw a change-up.

“We went with the change-up and he was on time for it,” he added. “Looking back, he was on my change-up and fouled two or three balls on just that one pitch. Hindsight being 20/20, I’d do it differently.”

In McGreevy’s previous start against the Reds this season in Cincinnati, he held them to one run and five hits over six innings and didn’t strike out a batter.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

On Tuesday he had one strikeout entering the sixth, then struck out five of the last seven batters he faced.

The Reds put their first two runners on in the second on a walk to Sal Stewart and Will Benson’s single. Tyler Stephenson hit into a double play.

Elly De La Cruz, batting seventh for the second straight game, led the fifth with a single. Ke’Bryan Hayaes hit into a double play.

The other Reds hit was an inside-the-bag ground ball double to left by Gavin Lux with two outs in the third, but Noelvi Marte grounded out.

“The stakes for us have been high for the last two weeks,” said Abbott. “It sucks when we don’t get the job done. We have 11 more and we still have time. A lot of things have to go right. I have to pitch better in my next one, or two, and the guys have to step up.

“We’ve had our backs to the wall for two weeks so it’s just about the right time to answer the call,” he added.

The Cardinals had a well-executed game plan for Abbott, especially the right-handers. Knowing he seldom pitches inside to right-handers, the Cardinals reached out and poked hits the opposite way into right field.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

“How many times have you heard me say, ‘How do you beat a good pitcher? You make him work and if he makes a mistake you hurt him.’ That’s kinda what they did,” said Reds manager Tito Francona.

Abbott gave up eight hits, didn’t walk anybody and struck out seven for his 4 1/3 innings, his time cut short because he used up 96 pitches to get that far.

“I threw a lot of pitches, almost 50 for the first two (innings),” he said. “They put some good at-bats together, a lot of foul balls. But overall, I was pretty good, effective in the strike zone and I didn’t walk anybody.

“They earned it. They beat me with hits,” he added. “Other than the sequence to Saggese I pitched a pretty good game.”

He pitched well enough to win if he had received a little help from his friends.

After De La Cruz’s leadoff single in the fifth, 13 of the last Reds hitters were retired, eight on strikeouts. Romero pitched a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts and O’Neill, briefly with the Reds in 2021, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout for his fifth save.

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