Matt Carpenter hit a home run in the third inning, giving the St. Louis Cardinals the lead. Nolan Gorman also hit a home run as the Cardinals won 5-3 against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.
Carpenter hadn’t hit a home run for the Cardinals since April 30, 2021. The Cardinals (27-27) have been playing well lately, winning 12 of their last 15 games. This victory brought them back to .500 for the first time since April 17 when they were 9-9. They struggled before this turnaround, with a record of 15-24. They’ve now won five straight series.
“We’re playing good baseball,” Carpenter said. “Our offense is coming full circle and getting close to what we thought we were at the beginning of the year.”
Carpenter, a 38-year-old three-time All-Star who played for the Cardinals from 2011-21, hit the home run against Frankie Montas (2-4). Carpenter has a batting average of .250 with four RBIs in 36 at-bats.
Gorman hit his 10th home run of the season in the eighth inning against Brent Suter. He also had an RBI double in the fourth inning to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0.
Andre Pallante (1-1) pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits in his first start since July 31, 2022. He struck out four and walked three.
“Pallante did a really nice job,” Cardinal manager Oliver Mormol said. “To have an outing like that it was impressive. He got a lot of weak contact.”
St. Louis had used Matthew Liberatore as its fifth starter after Steven Matz got injured in early May. Pallante had been in the minor leagues competing for a spot in the rotation.
“It was definitely what I was hoping for when I got sent down at the beginning of this year,” Pallante said. “I always felt of myself as a starter, and the more pitches I throw, the better I get. I hadn’t been pitching well enough to be up here. Pouting was not going to where I want to be.”
Ryan Helsley allowed a sacrifice fly to Tyler Stephenson in the ninth inning before Elly De La Cruz hit into a forceout, giving Helsley his major league-leading 18th save in 19 chances.
