I gotta tell ya, I have a love/hate relationship with these damn west coast games. So you know what that means? Another quick recap for all of us with short attention spans.
Miles Mikolas taking on Yu Darvish, surely this went exactly how we all imagined.
Darvish would cruise through most of his 7 innings. Going six up, six down to open the evening.
Mikolas would get some early defense to his night, as the legend, Michael Siani, laid out to steal a hit from Xander Bogaerts to open the 1st.
The Friars would get on the board first in the 2nd, as Campusano would drive in Profar with an rbi single after Profar doubled to LF. Mik would buckle down with two outs and runners on the corners and get Xander swinging at an 85mph slider to take it to the 3rd.
This is where we got to see VS2 and those blazing wheels, as he opened the frame by smoking a double to RF. Now, I must point out, this would be a single for literally anybody else, specifically on an arm like Tatis. But Victor gives zero f*cks and took that extra base and it allowed Siani to move him over to third with a sac bunt. Masyn Winn would follow the sac with one of his own, lining a ball to Profar in deep LF to tie the game at 1-1.
The Padres would regain the lead in their half of the 4th, getting back-to-back doubles from Campusano and Wade to make it 2-1.
Darvish just kept cruising, low pitch count inning after low pitch count inning. But then the 6th inning rolled around and that man Willson Contreras stepped into the box with two outs and BDE on base.
Willson got a splitter that caught a little too much of the plate and blasted it to straightaway CF for a 2-run HR, his second such HR in consecutive games (identical spot, to boot)!
That would be all the Cardinals needed, but they would add two extra insurance runs in the 8th for safe measure. Arenado would tap a slow one to Wade at 3B with the bases loaded to score Donovan, as Campusano completely whiffed with having his foot on the plate. Herrera would add the next run, pinch-hitting for Burly, sending a sac-fly to CF to score Goldy to make it 5-2.
The pen would work three scoreless innings to secure the victory. Gio-Kittredge-Helsley all throwing an inning a piece, Helsley picking up his first save of the season.
The Cardinals will look to complete the sweep tomorrow afternoon, sending Zack Thompson (0-1, 8.44) to the bump. Thompson will be matched up against Joe Musgrove (0-1, 9.72). First pitch is scheduled for 3:10pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew