{"id":695779,"date":"2026-05-11T03:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/695779\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:39:23","slug":"a-strike-away-from-victory-series-win-cardinals-see-disaster-hit-in-9th-inning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/695779\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strike Away from Victory, Series Win, Cardinals See Disaster Hit in 9th Inning"},"content":{"rendered":"

A strike away from a dominant series victory and a historic performance from their pitching staff, the Cardinals<\/a> suddenly saw disaster strike when their usually reliable closer faltered and their run of perfect extra-inning games ended in a forgettable finish.<\/p>\n

Riley O\u2019Brien<\/a> got within a strike of tying superstar closer Mason Miller<\/a> for the MLB lead in saves before Nick Castellanos<\/a> took him deep for a game-tying, two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. Then, after the Cardinals failed to score in the 10th, Padres\u2019 star Manny Machado won it with a lazy sacrifice fly in a 3-2 San Diego<\/a> win at Petco Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about this is that you\u2019ve got a clubhouse that\u2019s pretty pissed right now,\u201d manager Oliver Marmol told Cardinals.TV after his team dropped to 5-1 in extra-inning games. \u201cThat says something to not wanting to come into this (game) and wanting to just split with (the Padres). They wanted to get (Mason) Miller (on Saturday) and they wanted to take the series and prove what they\u2019re all about. I like the fact that the mood is what it is and the expectations are high. I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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O\u2019Brien\u2019s third blown save of the season cost the Cardinals a chance of winning the four-game series in San Diego. The pitching staff limited the Padres to four hits on Sunday and just 14 in the series, eclipsing the previous franchise low (since 1901) of 16 hits allowed over a four-game series.<\/p>\n

Cards make superstar closer Mason Miller work before falling on Saturday<\/a><\/p>\n

The Padres didn\u2019t even have a hit in the winning bottom of the 10th inning. They took advantage of two Gordon Graceffo<\/a> walks \u2013 one of them intentional \u2013 and scored when Machado lofted a fly ball to right and Ramon Laurenano beat Jordan Walker<\/a>\u2019s throw.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s a good lineup across the way and we held them down for the most part,\u201d Marmol said. \u201cThe rotation did a nice job and the bullpen did a nice job. They got the closer today, but outside of that, the preparation has been incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Alec Burleson<\/a> laced a letter-high fastball into right field to break up Walker Buehler<\/a>\u2019s perfect game bid through 3 2\/3 innings, Walker turned on a wayward curveball on the inner half and hit it into the third deck of the famed Western Metal Supply warehouse in left field. Walker\u2019s titanic two-run homer \u2013 one that left the bat at 108.3 mph and traveled 425 feet \u2013 was his 11th long ball of the season.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals generated little offense outside of that fourth-inning flurry, finishing with just three hits. That left them exposed when Castellanos hit his second homer as a Padre to knot the score at 2 in the ninth inning. After falling into an 0-2 count, Castellanos worked the count full and fouled off three pitches before hitting the ninth pitch of the at bat 389 feet.<\/p>\n

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What Michael McGreevy lacks in velocity, he makes up for it with movement <\/a><\/p>\n

Good all season at flushing previous results \u2013 be them feel-good victories or gut-punch losses \u2013 Marmol predicted that his club will be ready on Tuesday when it faces the Athletics<\/a> in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to go at it again (now),\u201d Marmol said with a sly smile.<\/p>\n

Remember to join our CARDINALS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other CARDINALS fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that’s free too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A strike away from a dominant series victory and a historic performance from their pitching staff, the Cardinals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2403],"tags":[1894,5,160,1556,4679,1527,1101,4,8639,1086,5943,21752,137,18,673,67,4311,4310,1949,8897,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-695779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-alec-burleson","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cardinals","11":"tag-gordon-graceffo","12":"tag-jordan-walker","13":"tag-manny-machado","14":"tag-mason-miller","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nick-castellanos","17":"tag-ninth-inning","18":"tag-oliver-marmol","19":"tag-riley-obrien","20":"tag-san-diego","21":"tag-san-diego-padres","22":"tag-st-louis","23":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","24":"tag-stlouis","25":"tag-stlouiscardinals","26":"tag-the-athletics","27":"tag-the-padres","28":"tag-walker-buehler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116553866522568340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}