Liz King goes the distance, Cards blank Bucs 7-0
Miles mf’n Mikolas and Prince Sex O’Neill. That’s really all you need to know about from tonight’s 7-0 win. Well, that, with a little bit of help from Corey Dickerson in LF.
Oh the defense behind Mik, that was exceptional too. I have four circled plays from the Cardinals defense: two coming from KoWo (both taking away base hits from Frazier), the sick play from Dex in front of the Cards pen to start the unconventional 9-4-6, inning ending, double play. Speaking of that double play, it was off the bat of Starling Marte, who hit into THREE double plays tonight. And in his final at bat to leadoff the 9th, he was robbed of an infield single with a strong throw from Tommy BDE Edman at 3B (taking over for Carp after he fouled a ball off his foot in the 7th).
PRINCE SEX was doing a bunch of dirty things tonight, most importantly nuking two-two run taters to the CF lawn. His second HR was pretty much the end of the line for Musgrove, who ran his pitch count through the roof (36 1st inning) early on. O’Neill was (3-4) with 4 rbi on the night, and he better be batting cleanup for the rest of time, dammit.
Not to be forgotten, Corey Dickerson. Dickerson allowed O’Neill to reach base his first at bat, as Prince Sex smoked a smoking liner to him in LF (106mph) and he misplayed it for an error, allowing Goldy to score to give the Birds a 1-0 lead in the 1st. In the 3rd inning, Dickerson was back to his shenanigans, gifting Goldy with an “rbi double.” Dickerson would track back to the warning track in LCF and get underneath the ball, only to have it hit the heal of his glove and bounce out, allowing Carp to score from 1B.
The Lizard King set the bullpen up perfectly the rest of this series, working a quick and efficient nine innings. Mik would toss 100 pitches on the dot, throwing 73 of them for strikes. He would scatter 8 hits, but work around them with the help from his defense (3 double plays). Mik wouldn’t allow any walks, only picking up three k’s (two on sliders).
Jack Flaherty (4-6, 4.64) looks to push the Cardinals winning streak to four games tomorrow night, matching up with rookie right-hander, Dario Agrazal (2-0, 2.81). First pitch 7:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew