With three big swings of the bat, Tampa Bay took the series finale from the Cardinals 7-2 Sunday afternoon at George Steinbrenner Field.
An early 11:10 Central Time start was delayed by weather, with first pitch coming at 4:35 local time. Once the skies cleared, Tampa rained punishment down on St. Louis pitching.
Much like Sunday’s start, offense was delayed on both sides. St. Louis and Tampa Bay combined for three hits through the first three innings, but the Rays broke through in the home half of the fourth when Christopher Morel took Matthew Liberatore 399 feet to left field for his 10th home run of 2025.
The big inning for Tampa Bay came in the following frame. Liberatore walked the bases loaded in the fifth and was replaced by Matthew Svanson and Svanson’s very first pitch of the afternoon was launched out of the stadium by Junior Caminero. The first-pitch grand slam was Caminero’s 37th of the season, and it tied Albert Pujols for the most home runs by a Dominican-born player in their age 21 season.
If the 5-0 advantage wasn’t enough, Tampa Bay tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning thanks to Chandler Simpson hitting a two-run triple.
Really the only positive for St. Louis is that they didn’t get shutout. After only managing one hit through the game’s first six innings, Jordan Walker finally gave the Cardinals hits (plural!) with a run-scoring single to center. Alec Burleson reached base thanks to a throwing error by Tampa’s Mason Montgomery, and came all the way around to score off of Walker’s knock.
St. Louis’ best offensive inning came in the ninth, which is normally good, except not when you enter said ninth inning down 7-1. Still, the Cards collected three hits and Nolan Gorman drove Burleson home to give St. Louis its second run of the afternoon. That, obviously, wasn’t enough today, but I’m trying to find some tiny wins from today.
St. Louis concluded its six-game adventure in Florida with an even 3-3 split. The Cards took two out of three from the Marlins, and dropped two of three against the Rays. Up next, St. Louis returns home for a four-game series with Pittsburgh that begins tomorrow night. Michael McGreevy is set to take the mound against Johan Oviedo.
