Johnny G Spot would get the honor to duel with ex-Cardinal, Marlins ace, Sandy Alcantara this evening. While Gant’s outing wasn’t the prettiest, it was enough to keep the Cardinals in the game with a couple of smooth double plays started by Nolan Arenado.
Alcantara would dominate the Cards bats all night, striking out a total of 10 in 6IP.
In fact, the Cards offense would only put together a couple of hits through the first 5 innings, as Arenado picked up the first base knock of the evening with a line back to Alcantara in the 4th.
Yadi would collect a leadoff base hit to CF in the 5th but Sandy would work around that with his 9th and 10th punch outs of the game, getting O’Neill with 98mph heater and Williams (pinch-hitting) on a 99mph sinker to end the inning.
The Marlins would plate a run on G Spot in the bottom of the 1st, as Dickerson led the game off with a single to LF on the first pitch. Things got ugly quick with a wild play from Bro in LF, as a Marte liner would knick off his glove for a fielding error and the throw back in would sneak past Arenado at 3B, allowing Dickerson to score and Marte to move up to 2B with nobody out. Two errors in the same play for O’Neill.
Gant would escape 2 walks and the early weirdness with the first of two huge double plays started by Arenado, getting Duvall on the 5-3 putout. Chisholm would be the first of three strikeout victims, swinging and foul tipping a 92mph sinker into Yadi’s glove for strike three.
Arenado would start his second double play an inning later, erasing an Alfaro infield single quickly. Rojas would ground out sharply to Arenado who then whipped it over quickly to Carp at 2B, who had a nice turn himself to complete the twin killing.
The Marlins would extend their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the 5th facing off against newly entered reliever, Ryan Helsley. After getting Marte to fly out to RF for the first out, Helsley would then load the bases: Cooper walk (3rd of game), Duvall single to LF, Anderson single to LF.
Chisholm would then hit a sac-fly to LF and Tyler O’Neill would lay out to take away more possible runs, as Cooper would be the only Marlin to score. TON really making up for those two 1st inning blunders.
Helsley ended the inning by freezing Alfaro on 98mph gas.
The 6th is when the Cards struck vs Alcantara, picking up quick back-to-back singles from Edman and Goldy to bring up Arenado, who would walk to load the bases. With DeJong at the plate, Alfaro would get charged with a passed ball, allowing Edman to score and Goldy and Arenado to advance to 3B and 2B. DeJog would then ground into a 5-3 putout, driving in Goldy to tie it up at 2-2.
The Marlins would elect to walk Carp after Sandy fell behind 3-0, and Yadi would cash in on the opportunity by hitting a game leading sac-fly to Marte in CF, scoring Arenado to make it 3-2 Cardinals.
Cabrera, Gio, Webb, & Reyes would work the 6th-9th innings, throwing up scoreless outings. Cabrera would work 0.2IP, inducing two big pop ups to end the 6th.
Gio would strikeout the side LOOKING in the 7th, freezing Cooper and Duvall on 95mph fastballs and then getting Anderson looking at the slider.
Webb would get the first two outs of the 8th after giving up a leadoff double to Chisholm, who beat the shift with a double down the 3B line. Webb would then get Alfaro to whiff at a high 90mph fastball and then Rojas to fly out to Carlson in CF.
Shildt would then elect to go to his pen, double switching Reyes in for Carp (sending Edman to 2B, and Dean to RF in the pitcher’s spot) for the four out save opportunity.
After walking the pinch-hitter Aguilar, Reyes would get Dickerson to fly out to Carlson to escape after six pitches.
Carl bean would help Reyes again by leading off the top of the 9th vs the lefty Bleier by blasting his 2nd HR of the season into the LF corner. Carlson hit the ball 102.1mph and 380 feet to extend the lead to 4-2.
Reyes worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to complete the four out save, while also earning back-to-back saves. Marte would pop out to Edman, Cooper would ground out sharply to DeJong, and Duvall would fan on a filthy slider to end the game after three hours and forty-three minutes.
The Cardinals look to complete the sweep tomorrow afternoon, sending Captain Jack (0-0, 12.46) to the mound to face off against Pablo López (0-0, 0.00). First pitch from loanDepot park is scheduled for 3:10pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew