Cincinnati Reds bloodied before game, then gut-punched by St. Louis Cardinals in 4-3 loss

This one hurt. So much it drew blood before the game.

So much it started to stagger the Cincinnati Reds' playoff hopes by the time the St. Louis Cardinals beat them 4-3 Saturday night to clinch the three-game series and send the Reds to their third consecutive loss.

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The Reds have lost 3 1/2 games to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the wild-card standings in four days and now trail Arizona by 2 1/2 for the National League's final playoff berth. The Miami Marlins also have leap-frogged the Reds in that stretch to move a game ahead of the Reds.

Reds manager David Bell smiled when asked if he was concerned about frustration building with his young team losing games like the last two against the last-place Cardinals and time quickly running out on the season.

“Not at all,” he said. “I’m so proud of our players, how we continue to play. Not from the very beginning did we ever ask for it to be easy. Ever.

“We have a long, long way to go, and we have an opportunity in front of it. It’s still all about how we approach it, how we play, how we believe what’s going to happen.”

The definitive picture of how Saturday went for the Reds was written in the blood streaming down rookie Noelvi Marte's face after he was hit by a ball when he looked away while playing catch with Elly De La Cruz minutes before the game. De La Cruz cringed as soon as the ball left his hand, and Marte bent toward the ground.

He was scratched from the game, but Bell said afterward he was "going to be fine" and might return to the lineup "pretty soon."

That didn't immediately make the rest of the day any less painful for Team Resilience, which has 18 games to make up games on at least two teams in the playoff chase.

The COVID-wracked Reds, who put two more players on the COVID injured list before Saturday's game, started a rookie (three from deep in their system) for the seventh time in eight games (the eighth game started by an "opener" on a bullpen day). This time Carson Spiers, an emergency callup to cover the COVID losses last week, barely got through the third inning.

The Reds are 4-4 during that eight-game stretch.

Even after putting the potential tying run on base in the ninth with a leadoff walk, Christian Encarnacion-Strand was ruled — after a replay review — to have committed runner interference breaking up a potential double play. Tyler Stephenson had beaten the throw to first, but the interference call made it a double play.

Bell, who had been ejected arguing ump Brennan Miller's strike zone in the fourth, didn't want to talk in detail about the overturned call and interference ruling.

"Once it goes to replay there’s nothing that can be done," he said. "As far as the letter of the law, I’m trusting that they got it right."

Will Benson followed by striking out to end the game.

Bell emphasized his team doesn't expect to be "handed anything" and that every team deals with its own adversity every season.

“It’d be nice to catch some breaks every now and then,” he said. “But no matter what, no matter what happens, no matter what’s thrown at us, our players continue to stay strong and continue to stay together and play hard.

“What more can you do?” he said. “I’m not going to ask for anything more than that. That’s what it’s all about. We also know that’s how you get to where you need to get to. It’s an incredible journey. It’s an incredible challenge, a major-league season.

“And our players are passing that test, and we can only hope that we’re rewarded in the end.”

Until the late innings, this might as well have been the Alejo Lopez game as far as the Reds were concerned — every significant event on a very eventful day for the team running though the 27-year-old utility man.

Lopez, who was waived off the 40-man roster 10 days earlier after getting called up for two days without playing a game, joined the active roster Saturday afternoon when he was added as a COVID-19 injured-list substitute — which doesn’t require being on the 40-man roster — to replace outfielder Stuart Fairchild.

He then replaced Marte in the eighth spot in the lineup (playing second base) minutes before the game.

Then saved a run in the top of the second with a diving play for the third out.

Then drove in a run in the bottom of the second with a double into the right-field corner.

Then made another diving stop for an out at second that likely saved another run in the top of the fourth.

Then got ejected by home-plate umpire Brennan Miller after a called third strike on a big curveball in the bottom of the fourth, just a few minutes after manager David Bell was tossed for the seventh time this season over a similar issue with Miller.

Just when it seemed like the Reds couldn’t find more ways to pull off the impossible, Lopez appears to have become the first player in Reds history (MLB history?) to be ejected from a big-league game without being on the 40-man roster.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds' playoff hopes take another hit in 4-3 loss to Cards