Cards can’t hold late lead vs. A’s

ST. LOUIS — Playing spoiler to the much-anticipated starting debut of Cardinals rookie Alex Reyes, the A’s scratched away for three unanswered runs to even their series at Busch Stadium with a 3-2 victory on Saturday night. For the Cardinals, the loss not only delayed their shot at securing their first home series win in more than a month, but it also left them unable to pad a 1 1/2-game lead over the Marlins for the second National League Wild Card spot.

Oakland took its first lead in the eighth, an inning started by reliever Matt Bowman. After Bowman allowed a pair of one-out hits, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny turned to his closer, Seung Hwan Oh, for a five-out save. Oh couldn’t complete it. Max Muncy’s hard grounder to first baseman Brandon Moss was enough to score Khris Davis from third to tie the game, and the Cardinals lost a chance to at least retire Muncy when Moss gambled with a throw home.

His off-line throw allowed the run to score, and Brett Eibner followed with the go-ahead sacrifice fly. More >>

“Right there, our defense is set up and designed to get the out at first and concede that run,” Moss said. “I dove and when I came up with it, I don’t know why, but for some stupid reason I saw that if I made a throw I had a chance to still get him at home. I don’t know why that instinct took over, but I guess it’s because you know that’s the tying run. A huge, huge mistake right there on my part, especially because I went completely against everything our defense was set up to do.”

That lead was locked down by an A’s bullpen that covered three scoreless innings and struck out six behind starter Zach Neal, who went a career-high six innings. The victory improved the team’s Interleague record to 6-13 and ended a string of three straight losses in one-run decisions.

“As a starting pitcher, that’s your goal, to get as deep in the game as you can and keep your team within reach, and to be able to do that is to kind of check off my goal for the night there,” Neal said. “I was probably executing a little better and got a lot of ground balls.” More >>

Reyes pitched the Cardinals into position for the win, though he was pulled one out shy of being eligible for it. Despite some command issues that contributed to four walks and a pitch count of 89 over 4 2/3 innings, Reyes showcased …

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