ST. LOUIS — Looking to provide distance for a Cardinals bullpen that needed to use each of its relievers on Thursday during a doubleheader vs. the White Sox, starter Andre Pallante turned in his second scoreless outing of six or more innings this season when he faced the Reds on Friday night.

The stability provided by Pallante’s start maintained the Cardinals one-run lead before they expanded it with a five-run seventh inning in their 6-1 series-opening win over Cincinnati at Busch Stadium.

Pallante recorded 10 groundouts, struck out four batters and scattered two hits and a walk on 87 pitches through six-plus scoreless innings to whittle his ERA down to 4.48.

The only two hits Pallante allowed were singles, one of which came from Matt McClain with two outs in the third inning and a single to Elly De La Cruz to begin the seventh — the latter of which signaled the end of Pallante’s night.

Reliever Phil Maton induced a groundout that turned led to a double play and got a swinging strikeout of Spencer Steer. John King (1/3 of an inning), JoJo Romero (one inning) and Riley O’Brien (2/3 of an inning) combined to cover the final two innings of the series-opener.

Held to one run by Reds starter Brady Singer, the Cardinals turned their 1-0 lead to 5-0 with a four-run seventh inning that included RBIs from Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman and Lars Nootbaar. Two of the runs they scored in the frame came on a throwing error by Gavin Lux that allowed Brendan Donovan, and Winn to score with two outs.

The first of the Cardinals’ six runs in their win came on a sacrifice fly from Alec Burleson in the third inning.

Getting through 6 scoreless

Having had his ERA balloon to 4.83 since the start of June, the quality start by Pallante was his sixth of the season and second this month. The winning decision was the first for Pallante (5-3) since May 16.

Pallante, who allowed seven earned runs in 4 1/3 innings during a June 3 start against the Royals, found success vs. Cincinnati as he leaned on his four-seam fastball for 48% of his pitch usage, per Statcast.

The right-hander landed his fastball for eight called strikes and had it put in play 10 times while getting just four swing-and-misses with it. Though, Reds batters had an average exit velocity of 90.4 mph when putting it in play. Seven of the total balls in play against Pallante were considered hard hit.

When Pallante had runners reach base against him, his fastball induced an inning-ending groundout of TJ Friedl in the third inning following McClain’s single. A slider that got De La Cruz to ground out in the fourth inning led to a force out of Lux at second base after Lux reached on a fielding error by Donovan, and Pages’ defense erased De La Cruz’s presence as a base stealing threat when he picked off De La Cruz.

Following a two-out walk to Jose Trevino in the fifth inning, Pallante induced a groundout against Jake Fraley and struck out two of the next three batters he faced before facing De La Cruz to begin the seventh.

Opening up the scoring

Upon Singer’s departure at the start of the seventh inning, the Cardinals piled onto their lead with a five-run frame that included just two hits.

A walk to Pedro Pages and Victor Scott II’s second hit by pitch of the night put two runners on base with no outs. A walk by Donovan loaded the bases to set up Winn’s one-run single after he whiffed on a 2-1 sweeper, fouled a 2-2 sweeper and lined a 2-2 sinker to center field vs. Taylor Rogers.

Gorman’s discipline to work a walk in a six-pitch at-bat plated Scott and Lux’s throwing error on a ground-ball by Thomas Saggese allowed Donovan and Winn to score.

Having struck out twice and doubled once as he looks to regain his form following his removal from the leadoff spot, Nootbaar lined a single to center field for his lone RBI.

Saggese starts in return

Back in a big-league lineup for the first time since late April, Thomas Saggese went 1 for 4.

In his first at-bat in the majors since April 27, Saggese hit a ground-ball up the middle that ricocheted off Brady Singer’s cleat and towards home plate for an infield single on a 1-2 slider threw well below the strike zone.

Saggese struck out looking on a 2-2 slider in the third inning and flew out in the sixth.

Saggese, who was called up on Friday and arrived in time to bat fifth for the Cardinals, received his call up to majors after batting .420 with a .508 on-base percentage in 14 Class AAA games since June began.

Cutting down De La Cruz

After a strong throw from Winn on an attempt to turn a double play could not prevent De La Cruz from reaching base in the fourth inning, Pages’ pickoff attempt quieted De La Cruz’s threat as a base runner.

On the third pitch of the at-bat that followed De La Cruz’s, Pages received Pallante’s fastball, popped up to his feet and fired a throw to first base. The throw and tag applied by Burleson beat De La Cruz to the bag as he attempted to dive back following his secondary lead.

The successful pick off attempt kept De La Cruz, who entered Friday with 21 stolen bases and 9 for 10 on steal attempts when facing the Cardinals, off the base paths as the Reds trailed by a run.

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