Any description of Monday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants must start with two words: Quinn Mathews. Quinn was unhittable (literally) for the first 5 innings of the game. The Cardinals bats were unfortunately quiet, too, for the first half of the game and you figured the bullpen would become a factor eventually.
While Mathews was tossing a gem, the St. Louis Cardinals were scattering hits which rarely equals runs. St. Louis had scoring opportunities that were squandered in the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd innings. Fortunately, that changed in the bottom of the 5th inning when Thomas Saggese slapped a one-0ut single up the middle. He stole second and then Herrera walked. In response to Alec Burleson coming up to the plate, the Giants removed starter Landen Roupp and brought in reliever Reiver Sanmartin. That didn’t end well for San Francisco and Burleson responsed with a single up the middle to score the Cardinals first run of the game to make it 1-0.
St. Louis wasn’t done, either. After Jordan Walker lived up to his name and walked, Leo Bernal came up and crushed a laser shot single to right field scoring Herrera doubling the Cardinals lead to 2-0.
That led to another pitching change for the Giants as they decided to try Anthony Kuhnel to face Joshua Báez. He managed to strike out Baez which brought up Nolan Gorman who looked awful in his previous two at-bats where he struck out both times. Sadly, he grounded out weakly to first to end the Cardinals rally.
Quinn Mathews no-hit bid ended in the top of the 6th inning when Grant McCray smoked a double into the right-centerfield gap. After Koss grounded out, the shutout ended as Noah Cox hit a solid single up the middle to cut the Cardinals lead in half at 2-1. Leo Bernal and Masyn Winn ended the Giants rally with a strike them out, throw them out play as Eldridge whiffed and then Bernal threw a ball tailing toward the right field side of second base that Winn caught and applied the tag. An amazing defensive play.
Quinn Mathews pitched into the 7th inning. I can’t remember the last time I wrote the phrase “pitched into the 7th inning” after a Cardinals starter’s name. Trouble was brewing in the 7th for Mathews as he gave up back-to-back singles to Whitcomb and Hill. Brett Harris then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position with just one out. Jung Hoo Lee lifted a fly ball to short right field for the second out and the Giants chose to not challenge Jordan Walker’s arm. That brought up former Cardinal Andrew Knizner. He worked the count full in part due to his expertise at using smart ABS challenges and walked to load the bases which ended Quinn Mathews night. Manager Oli Marmol brought in Justin Bruihl to face Grant McCray. After Bruihl threw 2 strikes, McCray managed to work the count full before Justin got him to groundout to Winn to end the inning.
Ryne Stanek was brought in to face the Giants in the top of the 8th inning. He struck out Cox and Koss, but Bryce Eldridge singled to left to give San Francisco the potential tying run at first. Next up was Drew Gilbert. He worked the count full before drawing a walk which moved the tying run into scoring position with the potential go-ahead run at first. That meant it was up to Turner Hill for the Giants to either make the last out of the inning or ruin our collective nights as Cardinals fans. He lined a ball that was fortunately grabbed by defensive replacement Ramon Urias at third to end the Giants 8th.
The Cardinals tried (key word) to add to their lead in the bottom of the 8th inning. Leo Bernal led off with his third hit of the night. Joshua Báez then just barely missed launching a ball into the visitor’s bullpen in left, but his launch angle wasn’t quite right as he flew out to deep left. After that almost great moment, Urias grounded into a double play to end the Cardinals 8th.
Stop me if you’ve heard me say this a lot recently, but the St. Louis Cardinals went into the top of the 9th with just a one run lead and Riley O’Brien coming in to try and save the game. He got off to a good start by striking out Furman. Next up was Jung Hoo Lee who smoked a single into right-center to give the Giants hope. That brought up Drew Cavanaugh. O’Brien walked him which moved the tying run to second and the go-ahead run landed on first. Grant McCray struck out swinging bringing the Cardinals to just one out away from victory. Christian Koss mystified us all when it appeared he was trying to bunt on the first ball in the dirt. He swung and missed at the next one bringing us within one strike of a win. Riley bounced the next ball in the dirt which moved both runners into scoring position as that eerie feeling of Deja vu was rearing its head. Fortunately, he ended up grounding out to Masyn Winn who threw an absolute missile to first base to beat the fast Koss to first base for a Cardinals win.
The St. Louis Cardinals will meet again Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. Andre Pallante is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals while the Giants will send RHP Blade Tidwell to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm central time while the game broadcast will be handled by Cardinals.tv.
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