Bad Defense and Untimely Hitting Sink Cardinals, Giants Win 13-8, Stopping a Late Cardinals Comeback Push
Madison Bumgarner would allow a one out walk to Pham in the opening inning, stranding him at first, getting Cafecíto to fly out and Swags to ground out to the Panda at the hot corner.
Jack Flaherty would set down the first two he faced this afternoon, before giving up his first hit to McCutchen, who ripped a single to LF. Flaherty would jam Brandon Belt with a good fastball, getting him to pop out to DeJong to end the inning.
Yairo Muñoz would get the Cardinals on the board first, sending a two out, solo bomb to deep LF in the top of the 2nd inning. Yairo would take a 3-2 fastball from Mad-Bum 372 feet for his 5th HR of the campaign.
Flaherty would retire the Giants in order in the bottom half of the 2nd, picking up his first strikeout of the game on Sandoval, getting him to swing at a knuckle-curve in the dirt.
Mad-Bum threw his quickest, most efficient inning in the top half of the 3rd, retiring the Cardinals in order on 12 pitches. Bumgarner would strikeout Flaherty with a cutter to begin the inning, and follow that with two ground ball outs off the bats of Bader and Pham.
Jack Flaherty’s day would implode right in front of our very eyes in the bottom of the 3rd. Flaherty started showing a lack of fastball command, and his other pitches suffered due to it.
Hernández would double to lead off the inning and Mad-Bum would draw a walk after, putting two on for the top of the order. Flaherty would pick up his second strikeout of the game, getting Duggar looking at a backdoor changeup. Flaherty then got Posey to hit a sharp ground ball to DeJong, who would misplay it for his first of two errors this afternoon, Hernández scoring on the play to tie it at 1-1.
McCutchen and Belt made the most of the error from DeJong, knocking back-to-back RBI singles, making it 3-1 Giants, with Crawford coming to the plate. After working a full-count, Crawford would walk, drawing the end of the line for Flaherty this afternoon.
Mike Mayers would come in to relieve Flaherty with the bases loaded, doing his job to perfection. Mayers would get Sandoval to fly out to Swags in LF, (McCutchen should’ve scored on this play too) and Hanson to pop up back to him on the mound.
Flaherty’s final line: (2.1 IP, 4 hits, 3r/2er, 2 bb, 2 k’s, 69 pitches)
The Cardinals would tie things up on Mad-Bum in the top of the 4th. Cafecíto would open the inning, lining a base-hit to RF for Swags. Swags would then be robbed of extra bases from Pablo Sandoval, who would dive to his right, backhanding the ball and throwing it to Hanson at 2B for the force out. Apparently Sandoval sprained his thumb on this play, but he would stay in the game, and oh boy, was he the deciding factor.
Trap House then would line a one out single to LF, advancing Swags up to second. Pauly D then would bloop a single into shallow CF, loading the bases for Yairo Muñoz. Yairo would rope a single into CF, driving in two more runs, scoring Swags and Trap House to tie it up at 3-3. Bumgarner would put an end to the explosion, getting Peña to ground into a 6-4-3 double-play.
Mike Mayers worked one more inning before being relieved today, giving up a one out single to Mad-Bum, Bumgarner’s first hit of the season. Mayers would turn to his slider for the next out, getting Duggar to strikeout on a slider in the dirt, throwing a wild pitch and allowing Mad-Bum to move into scoring position. Harry The Brah Bader would take away a go-ahead RBI single from Buster Posey next, sprinting in and laying out to keep the game knotted up at 3 a piece.
The Cardinals would grab the lead for a brief period of the time in the top of the 5th. Harry The Brah would have a big role in that run being produced, getting drilled with a cutter from Bumgarner. Bader would swipe second with ease, his 9th SB this season. Pham would strikeout, bringing in Cafecíto. Cafecíto and Swags would both come up with back-to-back singles, Cafe’s driving in Bader with ease to make it 4-3 Cardinals. Mad-Bum ended the inning picking up his 6th strikeout on Jedd.
I said brief lead, because the bottom of the 5th and 6th innings are dreadful. Brebbia would toss the 5th inning for the Cardinals pen, getting McCutchen to ground out to Gyorko to begin the inning. The next four Giants would all get hits off Brebbia, who has been trending down as of recent outings. Belt would double to RF, Crawford would single to RF, moving Belt to third.
Brebbia then had Sandoval in the hole 1-2, but threw him a two-seam fastball that got too much of the plate, and Sandoval knows what to do with fastballs in that location. The Panda sent a 3-run splash shot to RF, putting the Giants on top 6-4. Alen Hanson would keep the hits rolling, tapping and beating out an infield single. Hernández and Bumgarner would both be retired, ending the nightmare for Brebbia.
Mad-Bum would be lifted from this game after allowing a one out walk to Muñoz in the top of the 6th. Reyes Moronta would get the last two outs of the inning with no problem, striking out two, getting Peña on a slider and Garcia (pinch-hitting) looking at a fastball.
Greg Holland was tasked with the bottom of the 6th, and it seems like the Greg Holland of old is back, at least judging off his last few outings. Steven Duggar, called up to make his ML debut with the trade of Austin Jackson and Cory Gearrin, would hit a leadoff double, his first career hit, to RF. Posey would then work a full-count, eventually walking to put the pressure on the Cardinals. McCutchen would tap a ball back to Holland for the first out, moving both runners up to third and second. With first base open and Belt at the plate, Matheny would give Belt a free pass to load ‘em up. Holland would then win a six pitch battle win Crawford, getting the SS to swing at a slider in the dirt. With a 1-2 count and two outs, Pablo Sandoval decided to continue the Giants beating, golfing a 2-run single to LF, scoring Duggar and Posey.
Hanson would keep the inning rolling, hitting an RBI single into shallow RF, scoring Belt to make it 9-4 Giants. Hernández then lined a two run single to RF, scoring the Panda and Hanson to make it an 11-4 game, ending the night for Holland after .2IP. Holland should’ve been out of the inning long before this, but a Pham misplay in CF prolonged the inning for disaster. Holland was pinned with 5er, bringing his season ERA back up to 8.27.
Cecil would relieve Holland, getting the final out of the 6th on one pitch, getting Pence to fly out to Pham.
The Cardinals would plate a run in the top of the 7th off of Sam Dyson, getting things started with Harry The Brah hitting a single to CF. Dyson would pick up his only strikeout of the game next, getting Pham looking at an inside fastball. Pham appeared to injure his left foot on a swing during the at bat, getting lifted after finishing the at bat. Cafecíto (3-5, RBI) would smoke his third single of the day to LF, moving Bader to third. Swags would hit a sac-fly to Duggar next, as the speed of Bader made it possible on a shallow hit fly ball, also the sun played a big factor on there being no throw attempt. Dyson escaped the inning getting Gyorko to ground into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Brett Cecil would work a scoreless 7th inning, working his way around a two out single and walk. Cecil would get Duggar and Posey to fly out before McCutchen (3-6, RBI) would single to LF and Belt would walk, his second of the game. Cecil escaped the Giants threat, getting Crawford to fly out to CF.
Ray Black, making his ML debut this afternoon after the Gearrin trade before today’s game, would struggle in his first action. Black, who can run up the velocity, would allow back-to-back leadoff walks to DeJong and Muñoz. Peña would then pop out to Belt in foul ground, bringing in Matt Carpenter, leadoff guy, who was pinch-hitting for Cecil. Carp would donkey shot the first offering from Black, crushing a three-run splash-shot into McCovey Cove, making it 11-8 Giants. Bochy wouldn’t let things get any more interesting, going to his pen once more, this time with a familiar face in Tony Watson. The lefty would strikeout Bader with a changeup and get Wong to fly out to Duggar to end the inning.
The Giants would add two insurance runs in the bottom of the 8th off Tui, working his first inning of relief. Sandoval (3-5, 5 RBI) would hit a leadoff single and Hanson followed that up with a double to RF, putting runners in scoring position with nobody out. Chase d’Arnaud (pinch-hitting) would hit a shallow fly ball to Bader in CF, not quite deep enough to score Sandoval. Tui would induce a grounder off the bat of Pence next, and the ball would sneak under a DeJong’s glove into the OF for two more runs to score, making it 13-8 Giants. This was DeJong’s second error of the game, as the defense certainly didn’t help the bullpen one bit this afternoon.
Tui would end his afternoon with a strikeout on McCutchen.
The Cardinals (46-43) dropped the game by the final of 13-8 heading into an off-day before taking on the South siders of Chicago, the White Sox (30-60), for a quick two-game set.
Miles Mikolas (9-3, 2.63) was named the Cardinals only All-Star Sunday afternoon, and he will get the ball in game-one Tuesday night in Chicago, taking on Dylan Covey (3-4, 5.54).
Along with Mikolas, Matt Carpenter, leadoff guy, was named as one of the five Final-Vote recipients in the NL. Carpenter is joined with Brandon Belt, Max Muncy, Trea Turner, and Jesús Aguilar. Let’s all do Carp a solid and get him in the All-Star game, the guy deserves it, and we all know it.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Stew
Game 89 is in the books
by Stew
gifs/artwork by @cardinalsgifs
