I just want to start this one off by saying this is probably my favorite TEAM win of the season up to this point. There aren’t many to pick from, to be fair, but it seems like the one.
I think a big part of the game came in the top of the 1st when Rafael Devers came to the plate with runners on the corners and one down. Mikolas was able to sneak a 94mph 4SFB on the 7th pitch of the battle to strike him out. O’Neill followed with a grounder to Winn to end the inning.
The Cardinals played exceptional defense tonight. That might be the part of tonight that made me the most giddy. Nolan Arenado started things off with a barehanded beauty in the 2nd inning off a Vaughn Grissom tapper.
Norm got the offense on the board in the bottom of the 2nd, blasting a center-cut cutter from Crawford to RF for his 7th HR of the season.
Rafael Devers would get that run back in the 4th inning with a solo HR of his own off Mikolas. It was a curveball that was well below the zone, but Devers went down and golfed it out for his 4th HR in 4 four consecutive games.
John King and Andrew Kittredge would work the 6th and 7th, respectively. King would toss a 6-pitch inning, inducing three soft ground balls on the 2-4 hitters.
Kittredge would one up that performance, striking out the side in the 7th- getting TON on a slider, Smith with a heater, and Grissom with a slider.
The Cardinals would take the lead in the bottom of the 7th, getting back-to-back, one out, singles from Winn and Carlson (pinch-hitting for Siani) off Bernardino. Donovan followed with a walk and Noot followed that with a slow tapper for a force out, Smith to Grissom covering first, scoring Winn to make it 2-1.
The Red Sox would grab that run right back off of JoJo Romero, appearing in his fifth game in the past week.
Donovan would come up with the biggest play of the game in the 8th inning on a Romy Gonzalez single. Gonzalez would try and stretch it into a double, but Donovan came up gunning, and Gorman would get the tag down for a big first out to open up the inning.
Unfortunately, JoJo was leaving a lot of pitches over the plate and Duran and Refsnyder (pinch-hitting for Abreu) took advantage of it with two outs. Duran would single the opposite way and Refsnyder would drill an rbi-double into LCF to even things up, 2-2.
The 8th inning is where things took that BIG turn, as the Cardinals opened up with four consecutive singles off Slaten (Arenado, Burly, Herrera, Norm) to score two.
Masyn Winn followed that with a sac-fly to Refsnyder, scoring Herrera to make it 5-2.
A Brendan Donovan infield single to Gonzalez would end the line for Slaten, as Cora would go to Zack Kelly next.
Noot greeted Kelly with a shot into RF, sneaking under the glove of Refsnyder all the way back to the warning track, scoring both Norm and Donnie to make it 7-2. Noot would advance to third base on the foolery.
Mr. Leahy finished things off in the 9th, needing just nine pitches to do so. After a TON single up the middle, Leahy would turn a 1-6-3 double-play to finish things off for a 7-2 Cardinals winner.
The Cardinals will send Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 4.56) to mound tomorrow afternoon aiming for their first sweep of the season. He will face off against Nick Pivetta (1-2, 3.48). First pitch is scheduled for 12:05pm c/t as a Roku exclusive, so prepare accordingly.
Cheers, Stew
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