To say that Matthew Liberatore has struggled this season is to state the obvious. But, he tossed one of the best games of his career Sunday in Toronto as he completely shut the defending AL Champion Blue Jays down for 6 innings outdueling the Blue Jays Max Scherzer in the process. The Cardinals offense would come through late in the game to help them avoid another series sweep by Toronto.
The St. Louis Cardinals sputtering offense didn’t exactly set the world on fire. They did score first in the top of the 3rd inning when Nathan Church drew a one-out walk. Two batters later, Lars Nootbaar turned on an 84 mph changeup and turned it into a RBI double scoring Church and giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. This would be the lone Cardinals threat of the first 8 innings of the game.
Matthew Liberatore gave St. Louis the kind of outing that they expected when the season started, but have rarely seen. He was throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes and locked down the Blue Jays throwing a one-hit shutout for 6 innings. I can’t remember Matthew being better any game this season than he was Sunday versus the Blue Jays.
Max Scherzer deserves some credit, too, for his effort. He threw 6 full innings only allowing the 1 earned run, 4 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 1. In typical Scherzer style, he argued his way out of being taken out of the game in the top of the 6th inning.
You knew that the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen would enter the fray at some point and Sunday it was the bottom of the 7th inning when Ryne Stanek got into a jam, but also did a Houdini-like escape act to get out of it unscathed. George Springer hit an 87 mph Stanek slider off of the right field wall for a triple immediately putting himself in scoring position. Ryne rose to the occasion and struck out Alejandro Kirk and got Ernie Clement to foul out to Herrera to end the inning.
After the Cardinals wasted a leadoff single from Blaze Jordan in the top of the 8th inning, George Soriano was responsible for preserving the narrow 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 8th. He was able to get the first two outs with no trouble, but gave up a 2-out single to Gimenez who advanced to second on a wild pitch by Soriano to get into scoring position. Luis Urias made him pay for it when he ripped a 3-0 slider into the left field corner for a game-tying RBI double. Fortunately, that’s all they’d get as Guerrero Jr. grounded out hard to Winn at short to end the Blue Jays 8th.
The St. Louis offense would do something Sunday it hasn’t done lately. The Cardinals rallied in the top of the 9th inning. Masyn Winn got it started with a leadoff walk. Bryan Torres then singled to right giving St. Louis runners at first and second with no outs. José Fermín caught up with a 98 mph sinker singling in Winn and giving the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. It could have been much more as Nathan Church popped up a bunt that Kirk made a great play on for the first out. Blaze Jordan then grounded into a fielder’s choice that almost became a double play, but Blue Jays reliever Varland didn’t cover first base in time. It looked like that’s all the Cardinals would get when Lars Nootbaar hit a grounder to Urias who somehow turned an easy final out of the 9th into a throwing error that allowed Torres to score giving St. Louis a 3-1 lead and they didn’t stop there.
Jordan Walker took advantage of the extra out the Blue Jays gave them by stroking a single to left scoring 2 more and giving the Cardinals a rare commanding 9th inning 5-1 lead.
Surely the St. Louis bullpen could preserve a 4-run 9th inning lead, right? Riley O’Brien would be the man to answer that question as he came in to shut down Toronto and avoid a series sweep by the Blue Jays. O’Brien’s 9th didn’t start in a positive way as Okamoto hit a single into center that Church tried to scoop up casually, but allowed the ball to bounce away giving Okamoto second base for free. George Springer squared up a 97 mph sinker, but it went directly into the glove of Church in center for the first out. Riley then whipped a nasty 96 mph sinker past Kirk for the second out. That left Ernie Clement as the final hope for the Blue Jays. He grounded out to Masyn Winn who rifled a throw to first for the final out and a much-needed Cardinals victory.
The St. Louis Cardinals head to the Big Apple for a 3-game series versus the New York Yankees Monday. Michael McGreevy is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals while it’s Cam Schlittler for the Yankees. First pitch scheduled for 6:05pm central time at Yankee Stadium with the game broadcast available on Cardinals.tv.
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