The Cardinals desperately needed today’s game. With a loss they’d be three games under the (.500) mark, be on a four-game skid, and going home to play a first place Cubs team. Sounds scary, right?
Well let’s get a damn win, Hud.
Hudson looked to have his stuff in check this afternoon, and appears to be getting a little better with each start.
Hud was in cruise control his first 3 innings of work, inducing 5 ground balls (including a double play) and 3 strikeouts.
The best strikeout had to be vs Harper his first AB when Hud went back-to-back front door slider below the zone, getting Harper to fish on a pitch below his knees.
The Cardinals would get Hud a couple runs in the 2nd inning, channeling their inner game-one 1st inning, sending two nukes outta the park, courtesy of Swags with an oppo taco shot on a fastball and Wieters taking a hanging breaking pitch to RF, sneaking it over the wall for his 3rd HR of the season. Maybe this Wieters fella should play more, aye?
The Phillies would cut the lead in half in the 4th, loading the bases with one out, only able to push across one. I guess the baseball gods decided to lighten up on us a bit. Thank you, baseball gods.
After IBB Hoskins to load ‘em up, Hernández would ground into a 6-4 fielder’s choice, scoring McCutchen to make it 2-1.
Kingery would pop out to KoWo, who almost had the ball bounce out of his glove, for the final out.
The Cards and Phils would trade 1-2-3 innings in the 5th.
So, the same sorta thing happened to the Phillies in the bottom of 6th as it did in the 4th. Where the bases would be intentionally loaded with one out to face Hernández. And wow, how lucky Hud would get to escape this jam. Hernández would absolutely rip a screamer to Deez (104.6mph .630 xBA) for an inning ending double play.
The Trap House was open for business in the 7th, as Jedd yaked a 2-run shot to LCF off Eickhoff to give the Cards some breathing room at 4-1.
Edgar Garcia would come in to relieve Eickhoff, and he too would give up a HR, a pinch-hit oppo taco solo blast to the ghost of the leadoff guy, making it 5-1. This was beautiful to see, almost made me cry.
We won’t talk about the Phillies making this interesting at 5-3 in the 8th, let’s just say Carlos and Miller had a little blip and G-Spot came in to clean it all up!!!!!
Gant would induce two infield pop outs on Hernández and Realmuto (pinch-hitting), while striking out Kingery on a 91mph cutter up in the zone.
Jordan Hicks would come in and secure his 11th save of the season, retiring the side in order on 8 pitches. But he didn’t end it without a little help from his right fielder, Dex. Dex came into the game as a defensive sub for Cafecíto and the move ended up having a huge benefit.
Dex would end the game with an exclamation point, climbing the wall in foul ground down the RF line, getting unreal extension and reaching into the stands to snatch the final out off the bat of McCutchen.
Hudson’s line: (6IP, 4 hits, 1er, 3 bb, 4 k’s, 82 pitches)
With the win, the Cardinals (27-28) head back home for a weekend series with the Cubs (31-23).
The Liz King (4-5, 4.76) will get the ball in game-one, opposing him the veteran right-hander, Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.40). First pitch tomorrow night is at 7:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew
Special thanks to Lauren for filling in on the scorecard today!
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