Cardinals strike in 10th, sweep doubleheader vs. White Sox

Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch

CHICAGO — At the end of a long day at the ballpark, where even a five-run lead wasn’t safe and plenty of the play was slippery, the Cardinals had enough left for a short, decisive burst in their 19th inning of baseball.

Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar combined in the 10th inning of Thursday’s second game to deliver two runs and send the Cardinals to an 8-6 victory and a doubleheader sweep of the Chicago White Sox. The game already included a career milestone for Arenado, and he added a dash of the present to a historic home run with an RBI single in the 10th to score the extra inning’s spontaneously generated runner. Nootbaar followed with a two-out solo homer to the only relievers available in the bullpen added cushion to close.

Ryan Helsley got the save in the first game of the doubleheader by securing the 5-4 victory with a perfect ninth on 10 pitches. Rookie Andre Granillo, in his fourth major-league appearance and second of the day, earned his first major league save with a scoreless 10th.

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Granillo got the win in the first game of the doubleheader.

The Cardinals swept the series to go 4-3 on the road trip.

After a crucial two-run homer and dismissive bat flip in the first half of the doubleheader to tie that game and set up the Cardinals’ win, Willson Contreras extended the Cardinals’ lead in the evening game. His two-run single in the fourth inning not only chased the starter from the game but widened the Cardinals’ lead to 6-1 — seemingly ushering them toward a sweep.

When Contreras struck out to end the top of the ninth, the score was tied.

Andrew Benintendi’s grand slam erased everything in the game that came before it, whether that was Alec Burleson’s homer or Arenado’s 350th career homer that combined to seize the lead for the Cardinals or the work done by right-hander Michael McGreevy to quell the White Sox.

McGreevy pitched five innings and left with a hearty lead that came completely apart during reliever Kyle Leahy’s seventh inning.

Leahy pitched out of trouble in the eighth inning with help from a snazzy catch on a liner by shortstop Jose Barrero. Filling in for Masyn Winn in the evening game, Barrero made a catch that kept a runner at second from advancing and likely scoring the go-ahead run.

With help from his defense, JoJo Romero slipped free of trouble in the ninth. With one out and the walk-off runner at third, Romero (3-3) got a ground ball that Arenado backhanded and threw home. Sox runner Mike Tauchman didn’t even challenge as the tag was applied. The game had already veered into sluggish with dashes of sloppy as extra innings arrived.

Because the doubleheader wasn’t done with either team yet.

Grand display implodes lead

The Cardinals were cruising along toward a doubleheader sweep with a five-run lead in the seventh inning and systems go for a bullpen ready to hold it.

They had home runs to take the lead and base hits to broaden it.

And then the deluge came.

As a popup rainstorm settled over Rate Field in the seventh inning, the White Sox started to create some lightning on it. They greeted lefty John King with a pair of singles, and when the Cardinals turned to right-hander Leahy for the final two outs of the inning — things only got worse. Pinch-hitter Mike Tauchman laced a single to right field to push home a run and bend the inning back to the top of the Sox lineup.

Leahy walked leadoff hitter Chase Meidroth on four pitches, and that was the real miss of the inning. Meidroth had a couple of hits in the first game to enter the evening with a .278 average and an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) around .700. He was 0 or 3 against McGreevy before accepting the four-pitch walk from Leahy to load the bases.

Benintendi seized the advantage.

The outfielder, who spent a few winters early in his career working out in St. Louis, jumped the first pitch he saw from Leahy immediately after the wall. The 90.8 mph slider hung over the zone until Benintendi put it over the right field wall for a grand slam. The first grand slam this season by a Sox player tied the game, 6-6.

The rain fell throughout the inning, but it wasn’t weather that swamped the Cardinals’ momentum.

Pickoffs prove costly

Twice in the second half of Thursday’s evening game, the Cardinals were picked off base to disarm a rally or interrupt it before it could get going.

In the sixth, speedy outfielder Victor Scott II reached first on a ground ball that got a force-out for Chicago at second. Scott had a chance to get himself into scoring position with only one out — but was quickly and completely picked off second. The inning ended a batter later.

Reeling from Benintendi’s grand slam to tie the game, the Cardinals did get a chance to immediately answer. Nolan Gorman drew a walk with one out to begin the Cardinals’ answer, and then he was part of how they went silent. A double by Pedro Pages moved Gorman to third with one out. That brought reliever Jordan Leasure into the game, and before he got a ball in play, his catcher, Edgar Quero picked Gorman off third.

The out unplugged the potential rally.

Leasure struck out Barrero to end the inning.

McGreevy continues to impress

As the Cardinals continue to upshift and downshift between number of gears in their rotation, rookie right-hander McGreevy remains impressive in whatever role called upon.

The Cardinals expect at some point McGreevy will be in the rotation, making regular and scheduled starts, but through the first half of the season, he’s been on call for cameos. The 27th player for Thursday’s doubleheader, McGreevy had a before-sunrise wake to catch a plane to Chicago and felt sluggish at times with his staff. But he got results without his best stuff. He allowed one run on three hits. He struck out five and had 11 swings and misses. The only run he allowed came on a solo homer hit to lead off the second.

McGreevy then retired the next nine batters he faced.

Only two of them got the ball out of the infield.

The Cardinals are looking toward next week as the next time they’ll need a sixth starter and McGreevy will be eligible for a return. A doubleheader appearance is fortuitous because it does not count against the required minimum days spent in the minors before a recall.

Cards launch to lead, history

A second time for the Cardinals this season and a 350th time for Arenado in his career lifted the Cardinals into the lead and toward a sweep Thursday.

The Cardinals trailed by a run entering the third, and White Sox starter Mike Vasil still had his sub-2.00 ERA and two outs when he plunked Contreras. That put two runners on base for one of the Cardinals’ leading hitters over the past several weeks. After four times on base in the first half of Thursday’s doubleheader, Burleson cleared the bases with a three-run homer that vaporized and gave the Cardinals an early lead that would vanish later.

Arenado followed with a solo homer and a significant milestone.

Burleson and Arenado hit the first back-to-back homers for the Cardinals since April and only the second pair this season. Arenado’s was the 350th homer of his career, putting him alongside some of the all-time greats to play combine power totals with defensive honors. He’s the seventh player in MLB history with 350 homers and 10 Gold Gloves, and the only other infielder to pull off that feat is Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt.

Burleson’s seventh homer of the season put the Cardinals up 3-1, and Arenado’s ninth homer of the season extended the lead for McGreevy to 4-1.

Photos: Cardinals win second game of doubleheader vs. White Sox