Michael McGreevy did not have his best game Friday night in Kansas City. His outing started decent, but the latter innings not so much. Unfortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals offense didn’t accomplish much either as the Royals were too much for them again. You wouldn’t know that Kansas City has the sixth worst record in MLB so far this season based on how they’ve played St. Louis so far. The Cardinals would prove they never quit, though.
The St. Louis Cardinals have had the healthy habit of scoring early this season and Friday night was no exception. In the top of the 1st inning, Iván Herrera drew a one-out walk. Alec Burleson then ripped a double to right as Herrera advanced to third. Jordan Walker had a great team at-bat managing to lift a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Herrera giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis would add to their lead in the top of the 3rd inning when Nathan Church drew a leadoff walk and then advanced to second on a passed ball charged to Jensen (on a ball in the strike zone, no less). After JJ Wetherholt failed to advance Church when he flew out to left field, Iván Herrera came thru with an inside-out swing that drove a single to right field easily scoring Church and doubling the Cardinals lead to 2-0 which would stand until the bottom of the 4th.
About that bottom of the 4th inning…this is where a well-pitched game by Michael McGreevy would begin to come apart. Suddenly, the Kansas City Royals began hitting everything hard and often. Lane Thomas led off with a double and then scored on a double by Jac Caglianone cutting the Cardinals lead in half 2-1. McGreevy was able to get Perez to ground out which advanced Caglianone to third. Michael Massey followed that with a single to center scoring Caglianone and then advanced to second on a throwing error by Nathan Church as the game was then tied 2-2. Michael was able to get the second out as Loftin lined out to center, but Collins crushed a two-out double over Lars Nootbaar’s head in left scoring both Rave and Massey giving the Royals a 4-2 advantage.
Kansas City would add another run off in the bottom of the 5th inning when Jac Caglianone would show off his opposite field power hitting a McGreevy 92 mph four-seam fastball 404 feet into the fountains in left field making it 5-2 Royals. Manager Oli Marmol would remove McGreevy from the game after he completed the bottom of the 5th inning. His stat line for the night was 5 innings pitched getting tagged for 8 hits, 5 earned runs while striking out 2 and walking 1.
George Soriano was the Cardinals answer for the bottom of the 6th inning and he almost immediately ran into trouble, but it could have been worse. He walked Loftin to lead off the inning and then went on to prove that walks almost always come back to hurt you as Collins doubled to right over Jordan Walker as Loftin was held up at third which proved to be smart as he would score on a deep sacrifice fly to center by Tyler Tolbert as Kansas City started to pull away leading 6-2 after 6 innings.
Matt Svanson was solid taking care of the Kansas City Royals bottom of the 7th inning setting the heart of their order down 1-2-3 with 2 pop-outs to short and a groundout to first. He also did a fine job of managing the 8th inning for St. Louis, too. A nice defensive play by Blaze Jordan didn’t hurt his cause. JJ Wetherholt also made an incredible play on a ball that ricocheted off of Svanson’s leg throwing out Collins nearly from his back.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned much about the St. Louis Cardinals offense, it’s because there isn’t much to talk about through the first 8 innings. They would have their chances, but couldn’t seem to string hits together. They almost did in the top of the 4th inning when Jordan Walker singled, but he was picked off of first by Seth Lugo right before Lars Nootbaar singled. In the top of the 5th inning, Nathan Church hit a two-out triple, but he was stranded when JJ Wetherholt’s sharp ground ball up the middle was nabbed by the pitcher. In the top of the 6th inning, Herrera drew a leadoff walk, but two groundouts and a flyout made that lead to nothing. The Cardinals didn’t even have any baserunners in the 7th or 8th innings.
The Cardinals did prove that they do not quit in the 9th inning. Jordan Walker managed a single, but was forced out at 2nd when Lars Nootbaar hit into a fielder’s choice. Lars would score, though, when Masyn Winn doubled to left making it 6-3 Royals. After Nelson Velazquez walked, Blaze Jordan came up as the tying run which led to Kansas City taking reliever Matt Strom out of the game. Jordan would face Alex Lange and would manage a two-out single to right which scored both runners after they had advanced on a wild pitch making it a real game at 6-5 Royals. Bryan Torres was brought in as a pinch-runner for Jordan as Jose Fermin came to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. He unfortunately grounded out in a fielder’s choice to end the game.
The St. Louis Cardinals will return to Kauffman Stadium Sunday after a day off thanks to World Cup activities in Kansas City on Saturday. The Cardinals will ask Dustin May to be the best version of Dustin May as he gets the start Sunday afternoon. He’ll be up against RHP Stephen Kolek who’s 4-1 on the season for the Royals. First pitch scheduled for 1:10pm central time and the game broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv.
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