Cardinals Sweep Reds – St. Louis Takes Over First Place in National League Central

The National League Central Division pennant race is getting more interesting by the day, as St. Louis completed a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds today to claim first place by one game in the NL Central. Granted, there’s a lot of baseball to be played, about 47 games, give or take, but if this series is any indication, Cincinnati is going to have trouble as the season draws to a close.

The Reds did not have an easy task. They faced the fearsome rotation of Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Adam Wainwright, and the Cardinals aces did their jobs admirably, shutting down the Reds offense for the most part and allowing their offense to win each game.

The series featured some trash talking by Cincinnati second baseman Brandon Phillips, who called the Cardinals whiners and complainers. This led to a brawl in game two, which injured Cardinal reserve catcher Jason Larue, who is going for x-rays on his sore ribs. Phillips, incidentally, had no hits in the series and only got two balls out of the infield.

The two teams have similar schedules for the remainder of the season, but the edge has to go to St. Louis, with 12 games against the Pirates, the worst team in the NL Central. The two teams meet for one more three-game series in St Louis at the beginning of September. This time, Cincinnati is hoping against hope that they don’t have to deal with the one, two and three starters in the Cardinals’ vaunted pitching rotation.

Either way, the next series will be a test for Cincinnati. Will they pick up where they left off before the Cardinals series, or will they let this sweep demoralize them. The Cardinals, meanwhile, seem ready to go on a tear, but it remains to be seen whether they can carry over the momentum from this most satisfying sweep.

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