After a wild afternoon of transactions at the MLB trade deadline, there was a baseball game to play in New York and the Cardinals showed up like they had something to prove as they knocked Cam Schlittler, a Cy Young candidate, out of the game after just a few innings and Alec Burleson was a big reason why. The problem is that baseball games still last 9 innings which means the Cardinals bullpen will almost always become a factor for better or worse. Fortunately, the St. Louis bats would save the day.
When is the last time that we’ve been able to share that the St. Louis Cardinals scored in the first four innings of a game? That happened Monday night and was concurrent with Michael McGreevy having a very positive bounce-back outing (for 4 innings). The result was a Cardinals romp in the Big Apple, but it didn’t look like it would go the St. Louis way for awhile.
It started in the top of the 1st inning when JJ Wetherholt drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later, he was able to leisurely cross the plate after Alec Burleson jumped on a Cam Schlittler 97 mph four-seam fastball and deposited it into the short right-field porch in Yankee Stadium giving the Cardinals an immediate 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals started the top of the 2nd inning the way they started the top of the 1st with a walk by Nathan Church. José Fermín then found a 96 mph four-seam fastball to his liking and hammered it for a RBI double scoring Church and upping the Cardinals lead to 3-0.
The top of the 3rd inning was profitable for St. Louis, as well. Iván Herrera drew a leadoff walk and then stole second. Three batters later, Nathan Church singled to left scoring Herrera giving the Cardinals an unexpected 4-0 lead. Schlittler would only last 3 innings before he was removed from the game by Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
In the top of the 4th inning, Jordan Walker lifted a two-out single into right field. He also was able to take his time rounding the bases as he watched Alec Burleson turn on an 88 mph slider and smack it into the right field stands for a 6-0 Cardinals lead.
That Cardinals lead would start to evaporate in the bottom of the 5th inning when the Yankees lineup started to figure him out. After McMahon singled to right, Wells launched one of Michael McGreevy’s 88 mph sinkers into the right-centerfield stands cutting the Cardinals lead to 6-2. That would end Michael’s night as manager Oli Marmol removed him as his pitch count was in the 90’s and brought in Justin Bruihl. Trent Grisham greeted him with a home run of his own reducing the St. Louis lead to just 6-3.
Bruihl would manage the rest of the 5th inning and all of the 6th inning before Ryne Stanek would take over in the bottom of the 7th inning. He was welcomed to the game by Ryan McMahon who ripped one of his 95 mph sinkers into the right field Yankees bullpen cutting further into the Cardinals lead to 6-4. The very next pitch was launched 400 feet by Caballero into the left field stands making it only 6-5 St. Louis. After Ryne struck out Wells, he gave up a double to Grisham and that ended Stanek’s night.
George Soriano was brought in to try and stop the run hemorrhaging. He was not successful in his efforts. Newly acquired Luis Garcia Jr. who was just obtained by the Yankees in a trade with the Nationals absolutely unloaded on a 90 mph Soriano changeup sending it 424 feet into the right-centerfield stands for a 2-run blast giving the Yankees their first lead of the night 7-6.
Instead of hanging their heads and accepting another game that slipped away because of the bullpen, the St. Louis Cardinals bats rose to the occasion in the top of the 8th inning. It started with a Blaze Jordan “triple” off the left-centerfield wall although the defensive effort by the Yankees was…special. Masyn Winn then walked before Nathan Church decided he’d like to join the right field porch club as he turned a 90 mph changeup into a 3-run go-ahead home run making it 9-7 Cardinals and they were just getting started. After José Fermín singled, Jimmy Crooks unloaded a 2-run bomb into the 2nd deck of right field making it 11-7 Cardinals. Two batters later, JJ Wetherholt singled and then scored when Alec Burleson launched his longest homer of the night 424 feet also into the second deck of Yankee Stadium’s right field stands giving the Cardinals an unbelievable 13-7 lead.
Gordon Graceffo entered the game in the bottom of the 8th inning to keep the Yankees from turning this back into a close game and he was successful. Oli Marmol had him stay in the game to close out the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th inning, too, to lock up the Cardinals victory.
Hunter Dobbins will be the Cardinals starter for Tuesday’s game in the Big Apple. First pitch is again scheduled for 6:05pm central time and the TV broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
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