Cincinnati, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Yadier Molina homered for the game's only 
run  and  Adam Wainwright fired  seven splendid innings  to help the St. Louis 
Cardinals begin defense of their National League pennant with a 1-0 victory at 
Great American Ball Park. 

Wainwright  (1-0) held the Reds to three singles and racked up nine strikeouts 
while  working around four walks to barely outperform counterpart Johnny Cueto 
in  a  terrific Opening  Day pitchers'  duel and  spoil the  debut of new Reds 
manager Bryan Price. 

"It  was me wanting to  go out and set the tone better than I did in the World 
Series," said Wainwright in reference to his Game 1 loss to the Boston Red Sox 
in last October's Fall Classic. 

The  two  aces were engaged  in a scoreless deadlock  that Molina broke with a 
one-out homer in the top of the seventh. 

Cueto  (0-1)  was otherwise outstanding as  well, yielding just three hits and 
the game's only run while fanning eight over his seven-inning stint. 

"Johnny  was  terrific," said  Price. "We're pretty  accustomed to seeing that 
kind of pitching from Johnny." 

Molina  and  Matt Adams each  collected two hits  for St. Louis, which managed 
just five as a team. 

Cueto  had set  down 15 of the  last 16 Cardinal hitters until Molina belted a 
first-pitch  cutter  about  five  rows  deep in  the  left-field  stands,  and 
Wainwright  followed with a  1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to cap off his strong 
outing. 

"[Cueto]  threw me something in the middle and I put a good swing on it," said 
Molina. 

The Reds nearly tied it in the eighth, however, loading the bases with the aid 
of a pair of Cardinal errors but failing to come up with the clutch hit. 

Brandon  Phillips began the threat with a leadoff walk off Pat Neshek and Joey 
Votto  reached on  a mishandled ground ball by St. Louis second baseman Kolten 
Wong  to  put two  on with none  out. Two batters  later, Adams dropped Jhonny 
Peralta's  relay  throw  to  first on  a  would-be  inning-ending  double-play 
grounder to keep the Reds at the plate. 

Todd  Frazier was caught looking at a third-strike curve from Carlos Martinez, 
however, to keep it a 1-0 game. 

The  Reds then mustered little against Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth, with the 
Cardinals  closer  fanning the  first two  hitters before getting pinch-hitter 
Roger Bernadina to fly to right for the final out. 

Cincinnati  also came up  empty on a scoring chance in the fifth, created when 
Cards  center fielder Peter Bourjos dropped Brayan Pena's soft fly ball to put 
the  leadoff man  on  second. Cueto  then  bunted the  ball  straight back  to 
Wainwright, who fired a throw to third to easily gun down Pena. 

                                   Game Notes 

Wainwright  earned his  100th career  victory  in his  third-ever Opening  Day 
assignment  ...  Reds leadoff hitter Billy  Hamilton struck out in all four of 
his plate appearances ... Frazier collected two of Cincinnati's three hits ... 
Peralta  became the eight different Opening Day shortstop for the Cardinals in 
as  many years,  following Pete  Kozma, Rafael  Furcal, Ryan  Theriot, Brendan 
Ryan,  Khalil Greene, Cesar Izturis and David Eckstein ... Wainwright went 1-3 
with a 7.77 ERA in four starts against Cincinnati last season.