Cardinals Surge from behind for Walk-Off Winner, Stun Rockies 5-4 in Extras, Swags Homer Sends us to bed Happy
Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. This game was just that. Carlos Martínez, coming off the DL (right oblique) would make his first start since 07/19 vs CHC. Carlos looked untouchable through his first 4 innings of work, striking out 7 Rockies on 63 pitches.
Carlos had his slider and changeup moving all over the zone tonight, looking the sharpest it has looked since late to early June. Carlos even hit the gun at 97mph a couple of times throughout the first couple of innings.
Tsunami would strikeout the side in the top of the 2nd inning on 15 pitches. Carlos would get CarGo on a heater, as he followed that up with back-to-back k’s with his slider on McMahon and Murphy.
The Cardinals bats were quiet through the first 4 innings vs the lefty, Tyler Anderson. Anderson would allow only one hit through his first four frames, a leadoff infield single from the leadoff guy, Matt Carpenter.
Anderson’s defense had his back early on, as Gerardo Parra would rob Swags of two hits in the 1st and 4th inning.
The wheels started falling off for Tsunami in the top of the 5th, and his velocity on his fastball was noticeably lower than in previous innings. Parra would slap a leadoff single to LF to open the inning. Carlos followed that up with back-to-back punch outs of Hampson and Anderson (failed bunt attempt). Charlie Blackmon extended the inning with a single to CF, drawing the end of the line for Tsunami, who had the training staff out to check on him immediately after the Blackmon single.
Carlos would be pulled from this game with a “mild” right shoulder strain.
Tsunami’s final line: (4.2IP, 4 hits, 2r/2er, 1 bb, 9 k’s, 81 pitches)
With nobody up and warming in the pen, Shildt was forced to bring in Daniel Ponce de Leon, who walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, Ian Desmond. Nolan Arenado took complete advantage of the situation, drilling a grand slam to CF to make it 4-0 Rockies in a blink of an eye.
Trap House Gyorko would make sure the Cards weren’t shutout tonight, hitting a leadoff bomb to open up the bottom of the 5th to LF.
Anderson bounced back quickly, setting down the next three in order, picking up his 4th and 5th strikeout on Muñoz and Bader.
Ponce de Leon would go back out for the 6th inning, working his way around trouble. Ponce would record two quick outs, getting McMahon to fly out to Bader and Murphy to strikeout on a fastball. Parra then delivered his second single of the evening, shooting it into RF. With Hampson at the dish, Ponce would throw an errant pickoff attempt over to first, scooting by Carp for the error, the second identical error on the night (Tsunami had one in the 3rd). Hampson then worked a walk to bring in Anderson, who would bat for himself. With Anderson batting, Ponce would fire a wild pitch, but a late jump from Parra at 3B allowed Ponce to cover the plate and tag out Parra trying to extend the Rockies lead.
Anderson would work his way through the 6th inning on 11 pitches, giving up a single to Carp (3-4), are you surprised? Anderson would escape the inning, getting Yadi and DeJong to fly out to end the inning.
Ponce would work his last inning of the night in the 7th, getting the Rockies to go in order on 10 pitches, striking out the leadoff batter, Tyler Anderson. (why is he still batting?)
Tyler Anderson, after going 6 complete innings without allowing a walk, would walk the first three batters of the bottom of the 7th (Swags, Gyorko, and Muñoz) before Bud Black would relieve him for Oberg.
Oberg would pick up a huge first out, getting Dex to strikeout on a heater. Harry Bader then got the easiest RBI of his career, drawing a walk to bring in Swags to make it 4-2 Rockies. Cafecíto would grab a bat and hit for Ponce next, grounding into a 5-2 fielder’s choice, Trap House getting throw out at home on the force play. Carp, leadoff guy, came through in the clutch as always, collecting the only Cardinals hit of the inning, a single up the middle to tie the game at 4-4, driving in Muñoz and Bader. With the leading run on second base in Weaver (pinch-running for Cafecíto) Bud Black decided to go to his pen, probably a batter too late. Seunghwan Oh would relieve Oberg, getting Yadi to fly out to Parra to end the inning.
With the game tied heading into the 8th, Shildt would turn to his young flame-thrower, Jordan Hicks. Arenado reached base to begin the inning, hitting an infield single to bring in CarGo. CarGo would ground into a 6-4 fielder’s choice and McMahon followed that with a 4-3 fielder’s choice of his own. Hicks should’ve been out of the inning by now, but shaky defense wouldn’t allow it to be that easy for the young righty. Hicks would end the inning getting Murphy to line out to Dex in RF.
Oh would toss a scoreless 8th for the Rockies, picking up a strikeout of DeJong with a good cutter. Gyorko would deliver with a two-out single to LF before Muñoz would fly out to CarGo in RF. Bud Norris would work the 9th inning, even though it wasn’t a save situation. Gyorko would take away a leadoff single away from Parra to open the inning, getting the speedster to ground out 5-3 on the play.
Hampson would connect with a single into RF, later stealing second base with Story (pinch-hitting) at the plate. Story would bounce out to DeJong, bringing in the top of the Rockies order in Charlie Blackmon. Norris won the battle, getting Blackmon to ground out 4-3 on the play.
Ex-Cardinal, Adam Ottavino, would get the bottom of the 9th, escaping the jam to take us to extra innings. Dex would hit a leadoff single to CF and steal second base standing up with Bader at the dish. Ottavino would get Bader to strikeout on his excellent slider. Garcia would pinch-hit for Norris, grounding out to Hampson, allowing Dex to move up to third base. With two-outs and a base open, Bud Black would intentionally put Carp on base, bringing in Yadi. With a slider pitcher pitching, and Yadi being an opposite field hitter, this seemed like the right situation to have Yadi at the plate. Yadi would poke a slider into RF, unfortunately it was too deep, carrying to CarGo.
Dakota Hudson would get the 10th inning for the Cards. Hudson would give up a leadoff walk to Desmond, but followed that up with a fly out of Arenado. CarGo would ground into a 5-4 fielder’s choice, extending the inning to McMahon. McMahon would single the opposite way into LF, before Hudson would pick up the strikeout of Murphy on an excellent breaking pitch from Hudson.
Jake McGee would get the ball rolling for the Rockies in the bottom of the 10th. His evening started promising, with a strikeout of Paul DeJong on a fastball. Swags made sure to send us to bed happy tonight, as the LF’er unloaded on a fastball delivery from McGee, hitting his first career walk-off HR to CF. Marcell sent the McGee fastball 429 feet, for the 5-4 walk-off winner.
Jack Flaherty (4-5, 3.28) gets the ball in game-two, as he is countered with Jon Gray (8-7, 5.16). First pitch 7:15 c/t.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Game 106 is in the books
by Stew/@StewStilez
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