Trade deadline comes and goes, Hendricks shuts down bats, bad day ends with 2-0 loss
The Liz King and Kyle “Cardinals kryptonite” Hendricks battled things out in game-two tonight. Yup, you already guessed it. Hendricks spun a gem. Mik was pretty good, too. He did scatter 6 hits thru his 5.2 innings of work, only striking out 3.
The Cardinals defense would come back to haunt them, making two key errors that would lead to the only two Cubs runs. Edman would make a fielding error with one out in the 6th on a Bryant ground ball, as Mik followed that up by walking Rizzo to put two runners on with only one out. Cafecíto would make a fantastic running grab in the right field corner for the second out, taking away an extra base rbi from Báez. But Ian Happ lined a two out single into RF to score Bryant to make it 1-0.
Gallegos (0.1IP, 4 pitches), G-Spot Gant (1.2IP, 1 unearned run), Webb (0.1IP, 11 pitches), and Brebbia (1IP, 13 pitches) worked the final 3.1 innings.
With two outs in the 8th, Báez would double to LF, dropping a fair ball in front of Muñoz (double-switched for O’Neill in the 7th), who took a horrendous route to the ball. Maybe he’s not an outfielder after all? And maybe Lane Thomas is? Anyway, Báez would come around to score by making it look like he was gonna run on Wieters, causing Wieters to cross his feet and throw a ball awry into CF for a 2-0 Cubs lead.
The Cardinals had 5 doubles (3 leadoff doubles) tonight, not cashing in on a single one. They are now (3-41) w/ RISP dating back to this past weekend.
On a positive, KoWo extended his on-base streak to 19 games.
So, not only did this game end terribly, you could say the entire day did. From being quiet at the deadline, to losing to the Cubs and being tied again atop the division. Buckle up, it’s gonna be a long second half.
Jack Flaherty (4-6, 4.17) takes the mound tomorrow in the rubber match, facing off against the veteran lefty, Jon Lester (9-6, 3.63). First pitch 6:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew