Game 86 Recap vs Giants
Cardinals offense, led by Fowler, explodes for 9 runs on 14 hits, defeating the Giants 9-4 for 3rd straight win
Drew Pomeranz and Dakota Hudson had 1st innings to forget tonight, as both starters would toss over 30 pitches and surrender multiple runs in the 5 run frame.
The Cardinals bats were alive from the jump, getting on the board the second batter of the game courtesy of a Cafecíto solo HR to LCF on a 1-0 fastball (433 feet, 108mph exit velo).
Pauly Deez followed that up lining a single to CF and Pauly Geez cleaned up, demolishing his 15th HR of the season to deep CF (449 feet, 110mph exit velo) to make it 3-0 Cards before Hud even toed the mound.
The Giants would claw back into this one in their half of the 1st, getting things started with a leadoff walk from Belt. Posey followed that with a single into LF and Sandoval proceeded with a walk to load the bases for Alex Dickerson, still no outs.
Hud would induce a shallow fly to O’Neill on Dickerson and followed that up with a strikeout of Longoria to put himself an out away from escaping a bases loaded jam with nobody out.
But you know what they say about leadoff walks, they always come around to score. And Belt would.
Crawford would draw a walk after being down in the count 0-2, making it a 3-1 game. Pillar then singled into LF, and the Giants played station to station, making a 3-2 game. Hud ended the inning there, getting Panik to groundout.
Alex Dickerson would even things up at 3-3 to leadoff the bottom of the 3rd, getting the assist from the high outfield wall to splash it into McCovey Cove.
Side note: I hope they really don’t count that as a splash hit.
Hud bounced back, picking up two strikeouts on Crawford and Pillar before getting Panik to groundout to end the inning.
No worries though, that man, Tommy Edman I think is his name, came through clutch. This guy has balls of steel. And from the right-side of the plate, AGAIN.
KoWo would leadoff the top of the 4th slapping a double down the LF line, advancing to 3B on a perfectly executed sac-bunt from Hudson. That’s when Tommy BD Edman smacked a triple into that lovely triples alley in RCF at Oracle Park. And he had to be gliding around the bases, because he was standing at 3B when the throw came in like, “hurry up slow pokes.” There’s just not a moment too big for this kid right now.
Hud would face the minimum over the 4th and 5th innings before his night would come to and end.
The Cards offense would also plate two more runs before he exited, too.
With Trevor Gott in the game now for Pomeranz, the Cards got to him right away to extend their lead.
Goldy would walk, O’Neill would ground into a force out, Dex singled to RF to put runners on the corners, Daddy Wieters singled to RF to score O’Neill making it 5-3, and KoWo then grounded into a force out to make it 6-3.
Gallegos relieved Hud after his 5 innings of work, retiring the only six batters he’d face on 26 pitches. 5 fly outs and strikeout.
The Cards plated two more insurance runs on Melancon in the 7th. O’Neill opened the inning with a single and Dex followed that with the second Cardinals triple into the triples alley, making it a 7-3 game. Derek Holland would come in to finish the inning, walking Wieters before giving up an rbi single to KoWo to score Dex, making it 8-3.
Dominic Leone would come in to toss the final two innings, working a quick 1-2-3 in the 8th.
Dex kept adding to his big night in the top
of the 9th facing newly recalled reliever, Ray Black.
Dex smacked his 10th HR of the season to RF, making him a double shy of the cycle.
The Giants got that run back in the bottom half, as Vogt (pinch-hitting) would drive in Crawford on a sac-fly to make it a 9-4 game.
With the win, the Cardinals have won three straight, cutting into the division lead, trailing the 1st place Brewers by 1.5 games and the 2nd place Cubs by 0.5 game. Buckle up, it’s gonna be an entertaining second half in the central.
The Liz King (5-8, 4.34) takes the ball in game two, matching up with Mad Bum (5-7, 4.02). First pitch 9:05pm c/t.