Those were Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol’s takeaways from the five-game series with Cincinnati in which the Cardinals were fortunate to have won three. Sunday’s two-hit loss to the Reds was not among them as the Cardinals were blanked for the 14th time, 3-0, to go with the 16 shutouts they have thrown this season.
In four of the five games, the Cardinals had one run in the first eight innings, one in the first five, none in the first 10 innings and no runs in nine innings Sunday.
The Cardinals, who struck out 17 times in a 1-0 win in 11 innings on Saturday night, struck out just twice on Sunday, That matched their hit total, one of which was Paul DeJong’s single off the glove of Cincinnati shortstop Jose Barrero.