Marlins Spoil the Return of Carlos and Yadi, Beat Cardinals 7-4
A game every Cardinals fan was waiting for since that freak injury on 05/05 against the Cubs, the return of their leader, Yadier Molina, and the return of their ace, Carlos Martínez, didn’t go as planned. Martínez has been sidelined with a right lat strain since 05/10 and missed his last four starts in the rotation.
Tsunami would toss a 12 pitch 1st inning, retiring J.T. Realmuto on an inning ending, 6-4-3, double-play ball to Muñoz. Leadoff batter, Starlin Castro, would open the game with a four pitch walk before Martínez stuck out Dietrich on a nasty slider, low and inside. Realmuto then grounded into the aforementioned double-play. Matt Carpenter (3-5), leadoff guy, opened the bottom of the 1st with a base hit to LF. Cafecíto (2-4) then flew into a double-play, that shouldn’t have happened. Dietrich, who’s not an outfielder by any means, got a terrible read/break in LF, barely making the catch. For some reason, Carp got too far off first base, getting doubled off easily by Dietrich. Pham ended the inning grounding out to third.
The Marlins got the first two batters on base to leadoff the top of the 2nd. Justin Bour would reach on another four pitch walk from Martínez before Anderson would line a single into the outfield. Martínez bailed himself out of trouble again, inducing a huge, 4-6-3, double play on Rojas. Tsunami then walked the seven and eight hitters, Riddle and Shuck, bringing in Ureña. Carlos would make quick work of his counterpart, striking him out looking on a perfect slider, stranding the bases loaded.
The Cardinals pushed across the games first run in the bottom half of the 2nd. Swags Ozuna (3-4) ripped his first single of the game before advancing up to second base on a wild pitch from Ureña. Yadi, in his first at bat back, ripped an RBI single to LF, scoring Ozuna who ran right through Oquendo’s stop sign. Ureña got Fowler and Muñoz next, striking Muñoz out on a fastball. Muñoz didn’t look too comfortable this at bat. Kolten Wong kept the inning alive, lacing a double into RF, moving Molina up to third. Ureña escaped further damage, striking out Tsunami on a fastball, finishing a long 23 pitch inning.
The Marlins quickly regained the lead in the top of the 3rd, making it 2-1. Castro and Dietrich started the inning with back-to-back singles and Realmuto would walk to load the bases for Bour. For the third consecutive inning, Tsunami would induce a double-play, getting Bour to hit the sinking fastball to Muñoz who would start the 6-4-3 double-play. This is when the Marlins got a gift, Anderson would hit a soft liner to Martínez on the mound who would misplay it, throw it to first base from the ground, and a soft toss at that, and Dietrich would cross the plate on the play. Martínez ended the inning striking out Rojas on the slider, his third strikeout, all via the slider.
The Cardinals tied the game, 2-2, in the bottom of the 3rd, getting things started with back-to-back singles from Carp and Cafecíto. Carp would advance to third on the base knock from Cafe, bringing in th struggling, Tommy Pham. Pham’s struggles continued today (0-4) as he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, scoring Carp on the play to tie it up, no RBI credited on the play though. Ozuna ripped a single to LF and Yadi lined out to Castro at 2B to end the inning.
Carlos would throw his best inning in the top of the 4th, his final inning in his return from the 10-day DL. Martínez would toss a 1-2-3, 16 pitch inning. After retiring Riddle on a ground ball to Cafecíto, Tsunami would strike out Schuck and Ureña, both a victim to the slider.
Tsunami line: (4 IP, 4 hits, 2r/2er, 5 bb, 5 k’s, 45 game score, 75 pitches)
Ureña would retire the Cardinals in order in the bottom of the 4th, ending the inning a batter before the pitcher’s spot was due up. Since this was the case, Matheny would turn to the newly added, Preston Guilmet, instead of Austin Gomber.
Guilmet would take a beating in the top of the 5th after getting the leadoff man, Castro, to pop out to Carp. Guilmet throws really over the top, he looks like David Eckstein, minus the three cro-hops. And his fastball is so straight, and his slider, let’s not even talk about that, it hurt my feelings because I’m such a slider guy. Dietrich would rip a one out double to RF and Realmuto would hit a single to LF, bringing in the cleanup man, Bour. Bout hit a shallow sac-fly to Ozuna in LF, who showed off his tremendously, obviously hurt, right arm. The throw was so far up the line and had no zip. A decent throw could’ve gotten Dietrich. Anderson tried his luck next, smacking a fastball from Guilmet over the wall in RF for a 2-run HR, making it 5-2 Marlins. Guilmet’s Cardinals debut ended on a Rojas ground out to third.
Luke Voit would pinch-hit for Guilmet to start the bottom of the 5th, walking to bring in Carp. Carp kept things moving, hitting his third consecutive hit into the outfield for a single. Cafecíto connected on a single to LF, loading the bases for Pham. Tommy would ground out to the left side of the infield for the third time, 6-5 on the play, Carp thrown out at third on the play. Pham would be credited with an RBI on the play as Voit would score. Swags Ozuna wasted no time bringing in Cafecíto, swinging and connecting on the first pitch he saw, ripping an RBI single to LF, making it 5-4 Marlins. With Yadi at the plate and only one out, Ureña would somehow pickoff Pham at third base, resulting in a killer of a second out. Yadi grounded out to second to end the inning.
Austin Gomber would get his chance in the top of the 6th, starting his outing with a leadoff HR to Riddle. Riddle would take Gomber to CF for his 2nd HR of the season. Gomber then allowed back-to-back walks to Shuck and pinch-hitter, Cameron Maybin. Gomber would get a big first out, getting Castro to fly out to Dex, Shuck moving up to third on the play.
This is where things got bad, Dietrich would hit a sac-fly on a pop out to Carp in foul territory, making it 7-4 Marlins. This was a play that Carp has to get some sort of help on, sure, maybe Ozuna couldn’t have got there, but what is Muñoz doing? Regardless, the run would have probably scored, given the arms of Ozuna and Carp right now.
The Cardinals would get back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the 6th on the Marlins lone lefty reliever, Adam Conley. Fowler and Muñoz got things started bringing in Wong. Wong would attempt a bunt, and the ball would bounce back up and hit his bat for the second time, unfortunately he wasn’t in the box and was called out for batter’s interference. From this point, the Marlins bullpen would hold the Cardinals hitless, retiring the next 11 in-a-row. Conley would earn back-to-back strikeouts on Bader (pinch-hit) and Carp, getting them on changeups.
Nothing exciting happened the last three innings, so I’ll talk about Tui’s appearance. Tui would work some magic in the 8th, dancing around some trouble he got himself into. Tui walked the first man he faced, Shuck, who would steal second. Maybin then reached base on an error from Carp, moving Shuck to third. This is when Tui turned to that underrated slider he has. Tui got back-to-back strikeouts of Castro and Brinson (pinch-hit) before ending the inning on a Realmuto ground out to Muñoz.
The Cardinals would drop a disappointing game one to a bad Marlins team, 7-4. But hey, at least Tsunami and Yadi are back, that’s a positive.
Jack Flaherty (2-1, 2.62) gets the ball tonight vs the left-handed Wei-Yin Chen* (1-3, 6.10). First pitch 7:15 c/t.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Game 58 is in the book
by Stew // @StewStilez
Comentários