Cardinals Fall to Reds After Lackey is Tossed

John Lackey was unable to get past the second inning in his start Wednesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. Lackey gave up two runs in two innings but was forced to leave the game after being ejected by plate umpire Tom Hallion for apparently arguing balls and strikes.

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“Lackey was warned to quit arguing balls and strikes, and he continued to argue,” Hallion said. 

The ejection had Lackey and his teammates shocked, as it’s not a typical call in the second inning of a meaningful September game.

“I didn’t say any cuss words toward him,” Lackey said. “He saw my mouth moving and threw me out. It was unexpected, for sure. I’ve been thrown out a few times throwing balls at people, but never for something like this”  

Lackey’s ERA with the Cardinals raised to 5.05 with the short outing.

Tyler Lyons was brought in to replace Lackey and took the loss, giving up two runs (one earned) in 2.1 innings and allowing pitcher Alfredo Simon to collect his second double of the game. Seth Maness and Carlos Martinez finished out the final 3.2 innings, saving the bullpen somewhat and limiting the damage of Lackey’s short start in a 4-2 Cardinals’ loss.

St. Louis was able to muster only six hits against Simon, who improved to 14-10 this season, but has struggled mightily in the second half, sporting a 5.27 ERA and going 1-7 in the in the second half before last night.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead thanks to a Matt Holliday walk in the first followed by a Matt Adams RBI double and an RBI single from Oscar Tavares in the first, but would struggle to find baserunners afterwards.

Manager Mike Matheny chose to pinch hit Peter Bourjos for Yadier Molina and Tommy Pham for Kolten Wong in the ninth instead of using Jhonny Peralta off the bench and both looked awful, striking out swinging against flamethrowing leftie Aroldis Chapman. Chapman now has 416 strikeouts in 245 2/3 major league innings.

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The moves were highly criticized by fans and media alike, but it’s interesting to note that Bourjos has an OPS of 1.076 this month compared to Yadier Molina. The choosing of Tommy Pham over Johnny Peralta, however, is a bit  mind boggling considering the importance of Wednesday’s game as the Cardinals gave up ground to both the Pirates and Brewers and now hold a 3.5 game lead in the central.

The Cardinals finish out their four game set with the Reds looking for a split as Lance Lynn (15-8) takes on Johnny Cueto (17-8) at 11:35 CT Thursday. Lynn has been impressive all season and quite possibly the Cardinals’ most consistent starter. Lynn hasn’t given up more than three earned runs since June 28 (12 starts) and has subsequently seen his ERA fall to 2.80, He’ll look to keep his momentum going and keep the Cardinals cushion in the NL Central at 3.5 games.