St. Louis Cardinals top Cincinnati Reds in 16 innings; Matt Adams homers twice

How quickly momentum shifts: Back in the 14th inning, slap-hitting and running almost scored an entirely-too-portentous victory over huge guys hitting solo home runs. Then Carlos Martinez escaped mortal peril when the Cincinnati Reds committed an actual suicide squeeze and the St. Louis Cardinals' huge guy hit another home run.

Which should probably be a warning against ascribing any huge shift in momentum to this win itself. For now, though, it seems more appropriate to just revel in this win and the Pirates' loss (and the Brewers' win, if your girlfriend is also from Wisconsin. Norichika Aoki went 3-5!)

The things that went wrong in this game are all unnerving: Shelby Miller wasn't great, Yadier Molina isn't healthy, Allen Craig rolled his ankle, Edward Mujica blew a save. The things that went well, for the most part, are just weird: Tyler Lyons is unhittable, the Reds are determined to give back some of their baserunning advantage. You don't have to win those games, but they're certainly depressing to lose. (The "must-win" concept is frustrating, in part, because it keeps us from introducing more precise categories for our baseball anxieties.)

Having Matt Adams around at all, though—that callback was set up all the way back in spring training, when we could talk of nothing else but the Cardinals' boundless depth. Allen Craig's backup is now hitting .269/.329/.476.