CINCINNATI — Two power-packed comebacks and some extra-innings sleight of hand weren’t enough for the Cardinals to overcome the Reds and complete a doubleheader sweep of their hosts Saturday.

Riley O’Brien muscled through the 10th inning to preserve a tie game and leave two Reds stranded in scoring position, the potential walk-off runner just 90 feet from a win. He could not bust the ghost runner in the 11th. A sacrifice bunt and a groundball were enough for Cincinnati to bring home the winner in a 7-6, slide-off victory at Great American Ball Park.

Reds leadoff hitter Blake Dunn hit a groundball up the middle that shortstop Masyn Winn gloved. One of five Cardinals infielders at the time, Winn sizzled the throw home, but Spencer Steer slid in just ahead of the tag. Replay confirmed he was safe for the win.

The Reds did not get a hit off O’Brien in the 11th to win.

They didn’t need it.

Home runs brought the Cardinals back twice to eventually force extra innings. Jose Fermin led off the ninth inning with a pinch-hit homer, and Jordan Walker continued his eventful day with game-tying, two-out single. Walker’s third hit of the game, fourth RBI of the game, and seventh RBI of the doubleheader tied the game, 6-6, and would force extra innings. Yohel Pozo helped get them there when, in a rare appearance at catcher, he threw out Elly De La Cruz trying to steal second in the ninth.

The Reds challenged the call at second, but the replay official determined video could not conclusively overturn the original call and allowed the out to “stand.”

Walker hit his second home run of the day to lift the Cardinals back into the game. Walker’s 15th homer of the season chomped into the Reds’ four-run, midgame lead but did not take another bite until the ninth inning.

The Cardinals won the afternoon game of the doubleheader, 8-1, behind Bryan Torres’ emotional and dynamic major-league debut. After 11 years in the minors and independent ball, Torres got the call to The Show officially on Friday, and he was in left field for both halves of the doubleheader Saturday. Known for his ability to get on base, Torres did that with a walk and a single in his first two big-league plate appearances.

In his final plate appearance of his first major-league game, he cleared the bases with a home run that set Game 1’s final score.

Andre Pallante’s superb six innings helped hold the Reds to two hits total in Game 1.

They had as many home runs in one inning against Kyle Leahy to flip Game 2. Elly De La Cruz launched his 12th home run of the season with one out in the fifth inning. De La Cruz’s three-run homer erased the Cardinals’ 1-0 lead at the time and catapulted the Reds toward what would be a two-run lead at the start of the ninth inning.

Fermin’s second homer of the season cleaved that lead in half and momentarily made the difference a run generated by strategy in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Spencer Steer doubled off reliever Justin Bruihl to start the inning for the Reds. With lefty Bruihl in the game, the Reds switched their lineup to right-handed batters, and the second pinch-hitter he faced also doubled. Dane Myers’ RBI double was the different with two outs before Walker’s grounder to left slipped through and tied the game.

Leahy starts hot, gets burned

There was a stretch in the middle innings when Leahy got five consecutive outs via strikeout and seven of nine outs. He came into the game with a jolt of velocity, averaging 95.8 mph on his sinker in the first inning and 95.5 mph on his fastball in the same inning. Off of those pitches, he played a plunging changeup that also arrived a little swifter than usual.

The run of strikeouts followed.

From the third through the fourth innings, Leahy finished strikeouts with pitches as varied as a 94.4-mph sinker, JJ Bleday missing a 95-mph fastball for a strikeout.

Three strikeouts in the fourth inning allowed Leahy to hopscotch around a walk, a single, and a wild pitch to avoid allowing any runs. The Reds had three hits and four baserunners through the first four innings against Leahy. And in the fourth inning alone they went 0-for-2 with a runner in scoring position just a few hours after getting one at-bat with a runner in scoring position all of Game 1. Leahy sidestepped the trouble with strikeouts.

He had 14 swings and misses in the game, five on the changeup.

But as the innings got later and his pitch count got higher, that velocity got slower – and the Reds got going.

Reds power back into lead

In the fifth, Cincinnati cracked two home runs against Leahy to vaporize the Cardinals’ 1-0 lead with a five-run inning.

The zip on Leahy’s fastballs began to drift, and with it went the lead.

No. 8 hitter P.J. Higgins opened the inning with a single. He reached second on a sacrifice bunt and moved to third on leadoff hitter Blake Dunn’s single. Leahy got ahead of De La Cruz with a sweeping slider. But when Leahy went back to a similar spot in the strike zone with a fastball, at 93.6 mph, De La Cruz mashed it. The three-run homer traveled 387 feet and seized the lead for the Reds. They weren’t done.

One strikeout, one walk, and three batters later, Leahy faced Nathaniel Lowe with a teammate on first base. Sal Stewart reached by challenging a strike call and having it overturned for Ball 4 and the two-out walk. Lowe jumped on the first pitch he saw in the heart of the zone, and for one of the few times all night the changeup betrayed Leahy.

Lowe hit one 435 feet to widen the Reds’ lead to 5-1.

Walker answers (Volume 1)

What set up the pitch he destroyed was the pitch he just missed and the pitch he ignored.

Cardinals cleanup hitter Walker fell behind 0-2 in the sixth inning with two teammates on base, no outs, and a four-run deficit to address.

Walker had already homered in Game 1 of the doubleheader, and earlier in Game 2 he walked and doubled. Walker’s walk to lead off the second inning and ability to go first to third on a single set up the game’s first run. He scored on a sacrifice fly that Masyn Winn blistered to left field. In the fourth inning, Walker led off with a double only to stay put at second as the next three teammates were unable to advance him.

In the sixth, he advanced himself.

Down 0-2 after fouling off a pair of sinkers from Petty, Walker fouled off a 96.2-mph fastball that was near his sweet spot. Petty tried to get Walker to chase a series of pitches outside the zone, and Walker did not bite on a 2-2 sweeper beneath the zone. That assured a seventh pitch and a full count, and when Petty went back to the sinker, Walker pounced.

Statcast measured his bat speed at 86 mph. That was by 5.5 mph the fastest bat speed in the game to that point. The ball left Walker’s bat at 112 mph and it traveled 427 feet. The three-run shot yanked the Cardinals back into the game, but the scoring stalled for a bit from there.

Walker struck out to end the seventh with a runner at third.

Fernandez makes case to stay

Added to the active roster as the 27th player for the second game of the doubleheader, right-hander Ryan Fernandez used his first inning as an audition to stick around.

Fernandez struck out the side in order, building upon some of the success he’s had at Class AAA Memphis this season. He pitched a scoreless eighth with help from center fielder Victor Scott II running a ball down against the wall in center field.

As the Cardinals chased the Reds in the late innings, Fernandez got the assignment to hold them there for the rally. The Cardinals can elect to return Fernandez, and the callup for the doubleheader does not change his availability from the minors. Or, they can keep Fernandez and option another pitcher to the Triple-A Redbirds to return the roster to 26.

A consideration will be availability after Fernandez pitched two innings Saturday.

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