Reds beat Cardinals 5-4 for series sweep

CINCINNATI – The season has brought one setback after another for the St. Louis Cardinals – manager Tony La Russa’s drunken-driving arrest, reliever Josh Hancock’s death, a series of injuries to everyday players.\nThe defending World Series champions may be running out of resilience.\nJoey Votto hit a two-run double and David Ross followed with a two-run homer Thursday, sending the Cincinnati Reds to a 5-4 victory that completed the Cardinals’ road trip to ruin.\nThe Cardinals lost all seven games on their trip, capped by their first three-game sweep in Cincinnati since July 1998. It’s their first winless trip of at least seven games since May 1972, when they went 0-7 in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.\nIt’s a bad time to be making historical references.\n“We’re a little flat, things aren’t going our way, and we’re not playing good baseball,” outfielder Jim Edmonds said. “All those add up to losses. It’s really no different than it was at the beginning of the year. It’s just a bad time for it right now.”\nThe Cardinals had surged from 10 1/2 games out at the end of June to within a game of first place in the NL Central before hitting the road and hitting the skids. The latest loss dropped them to 4 1/2 games out.\n“It’s just been – I don’t even know how to word it,” said Kip Wells (6-17), who lost his fourth straight start. “It’s just been tough. We haven’t caught any breaks.”\nVotto doubled home a pair of runs in the fifth off Wells, and Ross followed with his first homer since July 23. The catcher had been 1-for-15 since returning from a concussion on Aug. 28.\nAaron Harang (15-4) gave up three hits and three sacrifice flies – two by Albert Pujols – in seven innings. David Weathers gave up Edmonds’ RBI single in the ninth before becoming the ninth Cincinnati closer to reach the 30-save mark.\nThe sweep was particularly pleasing for the Reds, who were swept in a three-game series in St. Louis from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2.\n“We went into their place and they smacked us around, so it was nice to come back and take three from them, especially with the playoffs right around the corner,” Harang said. “It’ll make them work that much harder to get back in the race.”\nThe Reds were still holding out hope of getting back into contention until they landed in St. Louis two weeks ago. Since then, they’ve been relegated to playing it out.\n“We went in there kind of on a roll and they stuck it to us,” Ross said. “I don’t know if we knocked them out of playoff hunt, but we did a good job of hurting their chances.”\nIt was the Cardinals’ costliest trip of the season by far.\nIn addition to losing precious games in the standings, they lost third baseman Scott Rolen, who had shoulder surgery on Tuesday, and outfielder Chris Duncan, who aggravated a hernia and is likely out for the season.\nNow, they’re running out of time. They play four games against the Cubs this weekend in St. Louis, and have three left in Milwaukee – the two teams they’re chasing.