The St Louis Cardinals capitalized on one of their bases-loaded opportunities, as a two-out single from Nathan Church brought in the go-ahead run, allowing the Cardinals to defeat the Cincinnati Reds 4-2 on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Great American Ball Park.

The Cardinals loaded the bases in the first, only for Jordan Walker to pop out to shortstop Elly De La Cruz. The infield fly rule was declared, but the Cardinals attempted to advance their baserunners, resulting in Iván Herrera being tagged out as he trotted toward home plate. The Reds would take advantage of the miscue, scoring in the bottom half of the first when Gavin Lux doubled home De La Cruz. The Cardinals made use of two walks and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for Church in the fourth, whose grounder into center field scored Walker and Thomas Saggese.

The two sides exchanged home runs in the seventh, with Willson Contreras homering for the Cardinals while Matt McLain touched them all for Cincinnati. Pedro Pagés provided an insurance home run for the Redbirds in the eighth.

Michael McGreevy went six innings for his sixth win of the season, allowing one run on five hits and two walks. Cardinals pitching did not record a strikeout, but did turn a double play and strand eight of Cincinnati’s runners. Kyle Leahy allowed a pair of hits, but turned in a four-out save for his first of the season.

St Louis improve to 68-69, 17 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central and five games behind the Mets in the wild card. The Cardinals have a chance to sweep the Reds and return to .500 when Andre Pallante gets the start against Brady Singer. First pitch Sunday is at 11:10 a.m.