If you had told me before Saturday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies that Matthew Liberatore would have a no-hitter going into the 5th inning, I would have probably called you crazy. That’s exactly what happened as Liberatore defied Coors Field tendencies and came out of the gate firing strikes. Then, the 5th inning happened and some other later innings weren’t great either thanks to poor defense play.
Before we get to Matthew’s potential masterpiece (until the 5th inning), the Cardinals scored first and fast. By fast, I’m referring to the speed that the ball left the bat of Joshua Baez and cleared the left field fence at Coors Field for a laser beam home run in the top of the 2nd inning giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis ALMOST added to their lead in the top of the 5th inning when Thomas Saggese led off the inning with a hustle double where he barely got into second while avoiding the tag. That theme would flip-flop on the next play when Nathan Church singled to right and Saggese tried to score from second. He thought his hand reached home plate before the tag was applied, but was called out and the challenge upheld the call which means no soup for Sags. St. Louis would still get some satisfaction with two outs and Iván Herrera slammed a 443 foot shot over the centerfield wall for a 2-run homer giving the Cardinals a 3-0 lead. It looked like a repeat of his game-winning shot from Friday night. BOOM!
No, Matthew Liberatore did not throw a no-hitter at Coors Field as that would have glitched The Matrix. He did give up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 5th inning to Cole Carrigg for the first Rockies hit of the night. Carrigg would steal second and eventually score on a one-out single from Johnston. Jordan Walker’s throw to home would sail through that Rocky Mountain air way over home for an error with allowed Johnston to move up on the play which would prove costly when Amador singled to left scoring him and reducing the Cardinals lead to just one run at 3-2. Two wild pitches later and the St. Louis lead was gone as runners advanced on both throws tying the game at 3-3. That would end Matthew’s night which looked so promising, but then the 5th inning happened. A story we’ve all lived through before this season. It would get much worse before it got better. Luis Gastelum came into the game and McCarthy who had walked stole second. For some reason Leo Bernal decided to throw to second with Tovar on third. Bernal’s ball skipped into centerfield allowing Tovar to score giving Colorado their first lead at 4-3. Norby followed that with a single of his own scoring McCarthy and upping the Rockies advantage to 5-3. But, wait, there’s more. Rumfield hit a sinking shot to center which Nathan Church dove for, but couldn’t catch allowing Norby to score and giving Rumfield a double as the score now stood at 6-3 Colorado. MAKE IT STOP! Fortunately Carrigg struck out for the final out as the Rockies batted around in the 5th.
After a very sloppy error-filled bottom of the 5th, the resilient Cardinals came roaring back in the top of the 6th inning when Leo Bernal and Joshua Baez started the inning with back-to-back singles. Nolan Gorman then lifted a moonshot that hit high off of the centerfield wall which scored Bernal making it 6-4 Rockies.
Baez advanced to third on the play and would score on a sacrifice fly from Thomas Saggese reducing the Colorado lead to just 6-5. That’s all St. Louis would get though after pinch-hitter Urias and Fermin both grounded out to end the Cardinals 6th.
Hancel Rincon, who was in the middle of the ridiculous tilted hat controversy Friday night handled the Rockies without issues in the bottom of the 6th. He stayed in the game after St. Louis failed to score in the top of the 7th, too. The 7th didn’t go as smoothly, though, as he gave up a leadoff single to Tovar and then walked Jake McCarthy. Rincon then plunked Connor Norby to load the bases with no outs. To quote Charlie Brown, “Good grief“. That brought up the dangerous Hunter Goodman who singled in two runners giving Colorado their 3-run lead back at 8-5. That ended Rincon’s night as manager Oli Marmol brought in Brycen Mautz to try and put out the fire. He got a groundout out of Rumfield as Nolan Gorman made a nice play on the ball and threw him out without allowing the runner at third to score. Gorman really flashed some nice glovework earlier in the game, too. The same cannot be said of the Cardinals outfield as balls were thrown too high for cut-off men and, in the case of Joshua Baez, misread a flyball from Carrigg and was unable to recover as it dropped for a single in front of him and another Rockies runner scored making it 9-5 Colorado. Veen followed that below-average defensive effort with a sacrifice bunt that turned into a single as Alec Burleson tried to flip the ball to Bernal at home, but it wasn’t in time and the Rockies lead was suddenly double-digits at 10-5. A double play fortunately ended the hemorrhaging of runs.
There was a decent St. Louis Cardinals defensive play in the late innings as Leo Bernal picked off a runner at first after the safe call was successfully challenged. Nolan Gorman’s diving play in the bottom of the 4th on a ball hit by Rumsfield was a Sportscenter highlight also as he threw him out from the ground so it’s not like all of the Cardinals glovework stunk up Coors Field Saturday night.
The Cardinals final hope in the top of the 9th inning would start with the bottom of the order starting with Thomas Saggese. He drew a leadoff walk to try and get something started. José Fermín was next and he drove a ball to the wall in right-center for a double which scored Saggese making it slightly more interesting at 10-6. Pinch-hitter Prieto grounded out to second for the first out as Thomas advanced to third base. Iván Herrera’s inside-out swing chopped a ball down the right field line for a single which scored Saggese making it 10-7 Colorado. That inspired the Rockies to go to their bullpen for Romano who hoped for a bounce-back effort after he gave up the go-ahead home run Friday night to Herrera. Alec Burleson was the first Cardinal he faced, but he lined out to first which was almost a game-ending double play, but Herrera got back to first in time. Jordan Walker barely extended the game by striking out, but Rockies catcher Goodman couldn’t handle the ball which allowed Jordan to get to first base. Leo Bernal came up as the potential tying run, but he lined out to right to end the Cardinals night. Hard to not view Saturday night’s game as one that should have been won if not for the many Cardinals misplays.
The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their Colorado vacation against the Rockies Sunday afternoon at Coors Field. Kyle Leahy will pitch at least the first couple of innings for the Cardinals while the Rockies give the ball to RHP Tanner Gordon. First pitch set for 2:10pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
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