CINCINNATI — Before a pair of home runs took flight to carry the Cardinals to a win there was the starting pitcher who made it possible keeping Cincinnati on the ground.

Michael McGreevy authored his sixth consecutive six-inning start and his third quality start of the month to guide the Cardinals toward a 4-2 victory Saturday night against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. Rookie Nathan Church's two-out, two-run single gave the Cardinals their first lead. Solo homers from Willson Contreras and Pedro Pages kept the Cardinals running ahead of Cincinnati, and now with consecutive wins this weekend the Cardinals have a chance to run down the Reds.

In the playoff hunt when they left home for a West Coast swing, the Reds returned having been swept by the Dodgers and shrinking from the wild-card picture. There to greet them on the periphery of the playoff race was the Cardinals. A win in the series finale on Sunday and the Cardinals (68-69) will overtake the Reds (68-68) in the standings.

The Reds got the tying run on base in the ninth inning before Kyle Leahy got three consecutive groundballs and cinched his first save of the season.

He’s the ninth different Cardinal to collect a save this season.

McGreevy stays grounded

The author of the Cardinals’ most quality starts of the month added another to his handful.

McGreevy (6-2) limited the Reds to one run on three hits in the first inning. He was helped by some meek groundballs that he fielded himself, and that provided a preview for how he was going to work through six innings. After the first inning, McGreevy held the Reds to only two more hits. A leadoff single in the fourth went nowhere, and a double in the sixth also failed to produce much for the Reds when McGreevy got a groundball to Nolan Gorman at third for the quick out that erased the runner.

Of McGreevy’s 18 outs, a dozen came on the ground.

He did not strike out a batter, and five innings into the game Cincinnati lefty Andrew Abbott had 13 swings-and-misses to McGreevy’s three. But of the balls in play against McGreevy, four failed to get past him on the mound. That included his final out of his start — a routine grounder that he had time to take to first base on his own if he wished.

The Cardinals did not strike out a batter in the game.

What the heck just happened?

Faster than the Cardinals loaded the bases in the first and threatened to open up the sizeble lead, the inning was over in a spectacle of wayward baserunning.

What happened caused enough head-scratching to leave a bald spot.

Ivan Herrera singled. Lars Nootbaar pulled a double down into the right-field corner. Willson Contreras walked. Before Cincinnati starter Abbott could get a second out, the Cardinals had the bases loaded and their No. 5 hitter, Jordan Walker, at the plate. Walker skied a pitch high and up over the mound. The umpires singled for an infield fly rule.

That’s when things went sideways.

Abbott and his teammates converged on the popup, but none of them caught it. When the ball dropped, the real confusion began as the Cardinals broke from their bases. Walker was out due to the infield fly rule, and that meant any Cardinal trying to advance did so at his own peril. All of them took off and tried to advance. The Reds — stumped for a minute at the activity on the bases — recovered in time to throw the ball around until they found an out.

Cardinals left bases.

Cardinals returned to bases.

Ultimately, Herrera was tagged out by the catcher in a play that started with Walker’s infield fly and ended in an unusual 1-2-4-2 double play.

That also ended the inning.

Second, third tries with bases loaded

The Cardinals would load the bases two more times in the first six innings of the game, and all they needed was one hit in all those opportunities to take a lead.

Three innings after the first-inning unraveled, the Cardinals loaded the bases when Abbott walked two batters and hit Pedro Pages with a pitch to force him to first. The walk and the hit batter all came with two outs, plopping the inning and all of its opportunity on No. 9 hitter and rookie Church. The center fielder opened the game with a .107 average, and the left-handed-hitting Church attempted a bunt against the lefty Abbott at one point.

With two out and the bases loaded, that was off the table, but Church got a pitch that he could slash and put in play.

Church skipped a grounder past a diving Elly De La Cruz at short.

The single sent two teammates home and flipped the Reds’ early one-run lead into a one-run deficit. The two RBIs gave Church seven for the season in the majors.

And he wasn’t done being involved in bases-loaded opportunities.

In the sixth, Church earned a two-out walk from reliever Scott Barlow. Two Cardinals were already on base, and Church’s walk gave the Cardinals their third inning with the bases loaded. This time the Cardinals didn’t run themselves into a curious out or hit themselves into an additional run. Masyn Winn, who became Friday the first Cardinal this season with three hits with runners in scoring position in a single game, struck out to leave the bases loaded.

First one to 20, next to 11

The run the Cardinals needed for some breathing room came with the bases empty.

In the seventh inning, Contreras became the first Cardinal this season to reach 20 home runs. The first baseman drilled a two-strike pitch for a two-out solo homer that moved the Cardinals to their first two-run lead of the game. Contreras’ homer traveled an estimated 431 feet as it soared high and then over the center-field wall.

Contreras secured his sixth season with at least 20 homers and his second as a member of the Cardinals. He’s four home runs shy of his career high, which was set in 2019 with the Cubs.

The swing for a new career high comes after a position change to first base, leaving most of the catching duties this season to Pages. Pages hit a two-run homer in Friday night’s game to hoist the Cardinals to their first lead, and he followed that with a solo homer to regain a two-run lead for the Cardinals in the eighth inning Saturday.

That home run was his 11th of the season, tying him with the other Cardinals catcher to shift positions for this season, designated hitter Herrera.

Pages entered Saturday’s game with a .352 average in August and a .648 slugging percentage. Five of his 11 home runs have come in the month, and he has 15 RBIs in his first 17 games of the month. The solo homer in the seventh regained that two-run lead that was almost squandered in the bottom of the seventh.

It takes 2 to get 2

For the second consecutive game, Jorge Alcala entered with a slim lead to protect. He pitched a scoreless sixth on Friday night to hold the lead. He would not complete the seventh with the same success Saturday – though the lead he left would be the same.

JoJo Romero deserves credit for that.

Alcala allowed a home run to Matt McLain that sliced the Cardinals’ lead down to 3-2. Alcala then walked the next batter to put the tying run on base and tiptoe toward the middle of the Reds’ order and De La Cruz. The Cardinals went immediately to Romero after the walk.

The lefty needed two pitches to coax a double play that ended the inning and the threat before De La Cruz stepped out of the on-deck circle.

Romero would also pitch into the eighth inning before yielding to Leahy to pilot the game into the ninth inning with the two-run lead holding.

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