CINCINNATI (AP) -- Skip Schumaker hit a three-run homer, rookie Anthony DeSclafani pitched six strong innings and the Cincinnati Reds won their second game of the day, beating the struggling St. Louis Cardinals 5-1 on Saturday.
The first-place Cardinals have lost the first three games of the four-game series. Their lead over Pittsburgh in the NL Central fell to three games, with the Pirates hosting Milwaukee on Saturday night.
Earlier, Adam Duvall's two-run homer in the eighth lifted the Reds to a 4-2 win in the completion of a game suspended in the eighth by rain on Friday.
Schumaker, a former Cardinal, hit his first homer since Aug. 13 of last season.
St. Louis is 3-8 in September after three straight losses to the last-place Reds, who on Sunday can finish off their first four-game sweep of the Cardinals since 2003.
Joey Votto, who is appealing the two-game suspension he was handed Friday for his altercation with plate umpire Bill Welke on Wednesday, electrified the sellout crowd of 41,187 with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh that Jason Heyward tracked down a step in front of the center field wall.
The Cardinals committed two errors to push their total to five in the first three games of the series.
Rain fell during the middle innings of the scheduled game and again in the eighth and ninth, but not heavy enough to interrupt play.
DeSclafani (9-10) bounced back from giving up hits to the first three Cardinals, including Heyward's RBI single, to retire 15 straight batters. He finished with one walk and a career-high 10 strikeouts in six innings.
Tony Cingrani, Burke Badenhop and Jumbo Diaz combined to finish the game.
Lance Lynn, coming off his second-shortest appearance of the season, opened with four hitless innings before Eugenio Suarez and Tucker Barnhart started the fifth with singles. Those set up Schumaker's two-out shot to right. Lynn (11-10) allowed four hits in six innings.
Barnhart added an insurance run with a single in the eighth.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Billy Hamilton's two stolen bases in the first game were his first since Aug. 18. He was activated from the disabled list on Tuesday after missing 19 games with a sprained right shoulder.
UP NEXT
Rookie RHP Raisel Iglesias (3-7) is coming off his shortest appearance of the season, lasting just three innings in a 7-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
