The good news for the St. Louis Cardinals was the fact that Kyle Leahy shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first half of Tuesday night’s game at Busch Stadium. The bad news is Diamondbacks starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez also shut down the Cardinals for the first half of the game. It would be crucial misplays at the end of the game that would ultimately cost St. Louis Tuesday night.
The Diamondbacks had the most opportunities early as Ketel Marte doubled on the first pitch of the game. He was moved over to third on a productive groundout by Perdomo, but Kyle Leahy got out of the jam by striking out Carroll and getting Moreno to fly out to center. Arizona would also threaten in the top of the 3rd inning with an almost identical opportunity as Groover hit a ground rule double to lead off the Diamondbacks 3rd, was moved over to third on a groundout by Troy. However, Leahy then struck out Marte and Perdomo lined out to keep Arizona from grabbing a lead.
The St. Louis Cardinals wouldn’t have a baserunner until the bottom of the 3rd inning when Pedro Pagés drew a two-out walk, but he was stranded when JJ Wetherholt grounded out to end the Cardinals 3rd. Jordan Walker collected the first Cardinals hit with one out in the bottom of the 4th inning. Lars Nootbaar followed that with his own single giving St. Louis their first scoring threat of the game, but it would be all for naught as Nelson Velázquez struck out and Jose Fermin lined out to center.
After Kyle Leahy pitched around a Gurriel Jr. double in the top of the 5th and a one-out walk in the top of the 6th, the Cardinals would threaten again in the bottom of the 6th inning when Iván Herrera drew a one-out walk. Jordan Walker followed Herrera’s walk with a sharp single to right field for his second hit of the game and Lars Nootbaar drew a walk which loaded the bases for St. Louis. What would follow would be a massive missed opportunity as Nelson Velázquez popped out to short left field where Perdomo caught the ball, but collided with outfielder Troy. Iván Herrera tagged up on the play and was sent home apparently by Pop Warner trying to score on the confusion of the colliding fielders, but he was thrown out at home plate on a play that was not contested by manager Oli Marmol leaving the game scoreless after 6 innings complete.
Kyle Leahy was nothing short of impressive as he gave the St. Louis Cardinals 6 1/3 innings Tuesday night which is a career-high for him. He was taken out of the game with one out in the top of the 7th inning when Oli Marmol brought in Max Rajcic to face Nolan Arenado. He was able to get Nolan to chase a 3-0 four-seam fastball grounding out to his third base counterpart Blaze Jordan for the second. He would get Gurriel Jr. out on a popup in front of the mound which was awkwardly handled by Pedro Pagés after the rest of the infield baled on the play. Outstanding performance, Kyle Leahy!
The Cardinals would miss another opportunity to provide run support to Leahy’s fine start in the bottom of the 7th inning when Blaze Jordan would draw a two-out walk and then advance to second on a wild pitch by reliever Morillo. Jimmy Crooks was brought up as a pinch-hitter for Pedro Pagés, but he would strike out looking leaving Jordan alone in his thoughts at second.
Max Rajcic stayed in the game to handle the top of the 8th inning for the Cardinals. He would unfortunately walk Groover on four straight pitches bringing up Troy who homered to deep center in Monday night’s game, but he struck out on a nasty 82 mph diving curve. He then got Marte to ground out on an awkward attempt at a double play where both Rajcic and Fermin were standing on first base trying to corral the return throw from JJ Wetherholt which was unsuccessful. Fortunately, it did not matter as Perdomo grounded out sharply to Alec Burleson to end the top of the 8th inning.
After the Cardinals bats remained silent in the bottom of the 8th inning, Matt Svanson was brought in to keep the game scoreless for the top half of the 9th and give St. Louis a chance to walk it off in the bottom half. That didn’t work out like the Cardinals wanted. He was able to strikeout leadoff man Corbin Caroll on a nasty 97 mph sinker, but Jordan Walker lost a flyball from Moreno in the lights for a single. Moreno would advance into scoring position at second on a wild pitch by Svanson and then Smith walked bringing up Nolan Arenado with two on and just one out. Spoiler Alert: this encounter did not end well for the Cardinals as Nado turned on a 3-2 fastball and ripped it into the corner giving the Diamondbacks a 9th inning 1-0 lead and it would get worse. Gurriel Jr. connected on a 3-2 single to center scoring both Smith and Arenado making it 3-0 Diamondbacks. Gordon Graceffo was brought in to try and limit Arizona to just 3 runs so there would be some kind of chance in the bottom of the 9th. That hope was also unsuccessful as Gordon walked two to load the bases and then fell over Marte who scored on a passed ball charged to Jimmy Crooks giving Arizona a larger than it needed to be 4-0 lead before the top of the 9th mercifully ended on a flyout by Perdomo.
I wish I could report that the middle and bottom half of the Cardinals lineup pulled off a miracle rally in the bottom of the 9th against Diamondbacks reliever Paul Sewald, but that would be inaccurate. Would you believe that the Cardinals would bring the potential winning run to the plate, though? That really happened after Lars Nootbaar doubled, Jose Fermin singled and Alec Burleson doubled to give St. Louis a run making it 4-1. Blaze Jordan came up with runners at second and third representing the tying run. He would manage a sacrifice fly scoring Fermin cutting the Arizona lead in half at 4-2. Jimmy Crooks looked to redeem himself for the passed ball and run in the top of the 9th inning by doing something dramatically cool in the bottom of the 9th. He would rip a single to right scoring Burleson and making it a one run game. Good gravy. That brought up none other than JJ Wetherholt as the potential winning run. The Diamondbacks were forced to bring in lefthander Brandyn Garcia to try to shut down JJ. Wetherholt unfortunately struck out. BUMMER. The good news? There’s always tomorrow.
Matthew Liberatore will try to turnaround his season Wednesday night as the St. Louis Cardinals play game 3 of their 4 game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matthew will be opposed by one of the top Diamondbacks prospect Mitch Britt who will make his Major League debut for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm central time at Busch Stadium and the TV broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv.