Quick kicks: Cardinal starting bowler Stephen Matz scores a win but gets hurt again

O’Neill, second on the second night in a row, hit Homer from two runs and drove into another round alone, giving him five runs on both nights. He only had 28 RBIs in a season plagued by injuries before the team got here.

Matz, who has not started with the Cardinals since May 22 due to a left shoulder collision, hit seven, including five in a row from round four to round six. He took his first win since May 2 in the Cardinal’s 6-3 victory over the Reds, but was unable to finish sixth when he struggled with a left knee strain after fumbling with Joey Foto’s first baseline hit and then lunged into trying to pick it up.

Matz, who might have been better off letting Paul Goldschmidt do the play, will now be out for several more weeks. The insult was added to the injury, and Matz (4-3), who only allowed three hits and walked only once in 5 1/3 runs, was charged with a foul.

But the Cardinals’ Bulls dominated the final round of 3 and 2/3 – All-Star Ryan Hillsley scored his ninth save – and the Cardinals won Game Two of the trip for the seventh time in a row this year. Oddly enough, they lost their first match in all seven trips.

Matz was aggressive early on, throwing 18 hits in his first 25 throws over the course of two rounds. At 96 mph, Matz, who had a shoulder collision, allowed a single to form Cardinal Tommy Pham at the time.

Goldschmidt jumped in one of Cardinal’s two runs in the third inning with a single left, and O’Neill scored. This undefeated 1,000th run was for Goldschmidt, who also crossed 300 home points and scored 1,000 points in his career.

Dylan Carlson started the break with a double, his fifth game in a row with an extra base kick, as Goldschmidt tied for the longest such streak by a Cardinal this season.

O’Neill provided a single, and Carlson recorded. In the next court, O’Neill stole second place without a throw.

Goldschmidt made it 2-0 with his seventh defeat in 13 strokes against left-handed Mike Minor. Nolan Arenado doubled to center left, Goldschmidt standing third. The assembly also stopped there.

Albert Pujols bounced back to third and Tommy Adman deliberately walked away. But, with the rules loaded, he took advantage of Brendan Donovan’s Minor, who forced Goldschmidt back home. Edmundo Sosa climbed for the second time out of four times.

With the Cardinals wasted an opportunity in a bigger round, the Reds decided in the third round.

Matz hits Stuart Fairchild with a pitch, forcing Mark Coluzhary to Fairchild. Jonathan India walked close 3-2 on the field and Brandon Drury doubled to the left of center. Koloszari scored easily and India, passing through third-base coach JR House’s stop signal, conceded before Andrew Kneisner attacked after Kneisner had a throw-in just above Sosa.

Marmol had said he shot O’Neill in second to “make him go,” after more than half a season of inconsistency and injury. O’Neill tied 416-foot Homer to the center green after Carlson hit a pitch with one in the fourth.

Goldschmidt then broke through his 22nd team, marking the fifth time the Cardinal has met again and again this season with a score of 5-2.

Later in the inning, Pujols doubled to the left, giving him a 934 career multi-hit, tying Hall of Famer Eddie Murray to 11th on the job list. Pujols, who has 685 pro players, would later miss out on two home runs – only one foul and one stuck in the wall.

Through five innings, Matz maintained the 5-2 lead, edging out the side in fifth with squats 95, 96 and 95, respectively, with Closefary looking, India and Drury.

But, after leading Edman in one round for sixth, Colozvari, who called him up earlier in the day, fired his first big-league home over Junior Fernandes in seventh for the Reds, cutting the Cardinal’s lead to 6-3. Fernandes hit India close to his right hand and Giovanni Gallego Drori walked before Gallegos knocked out the inning by retiring a foto on a set swing tool into the hill.

Helsley, who was throwing at up to 102 mph, put the four final hitters in the Reds who covered eighth and ninth, hitting the three he faced in ninth.