With a couple of exceptions, Michael McGreevy gave the St. Louis Cardinals a good start Sunday. Fortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals woke up in time to complete the sweep of the Cincinnati Reds Sunday.
My fear is that the narrative of this game would be all of the runners the Cardinals stranded on base Sunday. Through the first several innings, St. Louis had left 11 runners on base including a bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the 1st inning. That combined with Michael McGreevy leaving two pitches right in the middle of the zone in the top of the 3rd inning resulting in home runs from McLain and Stephenson giving Cincinnati a 2-0 lead.
The St. Louis bats would greet the Cincinnati Reds bullpen in the bottom of the 5th inning as Alec Burleson slapped a double down the left field line followed by Jordan Walker smoking a 93 mph four-seam fastball to the left-center field wall scoring Burleson and cutting the Reds lead in half at 2-1.
Bryan Torres would eliminate that lead altogether giving the Cardinals their first lead of the game when he crushed a 92 mph four-seam fastball into the right field stands making it 3-2 Cardinals.
Michael McGreevy’s outing was a successful one. He gave St. Louis 6 solid innings allowing just 5 hits, 2 earned runs with 5 strikeouts and no walks.
George Soriano came in to take care of the 7th inning for the Cardinals. Unfortunately, McLain would connect with one of his 96 mph sinkers for his second home run of the day tying the game at 3-3. Soriano would only get 2 outs before being removed in the 7th inning as JoJo Romero came in to settle down a runners on first and second threat from the Reds which could have been worse if not for a fine defensive play from JJ Wetherholt getting a force out at 2nd base. JJ also made a leaping grab to end the inning keeping the game tied going into the bottom of the 7th. JoJo would hang in there through the first 2/3 of the 8th inning, but was removed by manager Oli Marmol after Myers singled into center. Ryne Stanek introduced himself by throwing a wild pitch to the backstop advancing Myers into scoring position at second, but he’d strike out Benson to end the Reds half of the 8th inning.
The Cardinals offense would threaten in their half of the 8th inning as José Fermín led off with a single. Instead of Nolan Gorman being allowed to change his 0-3 day, Nelson Velázquez pinch-hit instead. He ripped a single to left field to the delight of the tarps off crowd in right field giving St. Louis runners on first and second with no out. Victor Scott II, the team’s designated bunter dropped down a beauty which the Reds pitcher Moll decided to throw into left field which was a great decision (for the Cardinals) which scored Fermin giving St. Louis a 4-3 lead.
That spectacular effort was followed by a 8-pitch walk to JJ Wetherholt to load the bases. Ivan Herrera then hit a ball to McLain at short who was playing in. The ball caught him on an in-between hop and he botched it allowing Velazquez to score giving St. Louis a 5-3 lead. After 2 force-outs at home plate, Reds relief pitcher Santillan would get Lars Nootbaar to fly out to left field with the bases loaded to end the Cardinals 8th inning. Thank you again, Reds bullpen. We are going to miss you when you leave town. However, the Cardinals stranded WAY too many runners Sunday. Those extra runs would have been nice to make the 9th inning less stressful.
The St. Louis Cardinals would bring in Riley O’Brien to handle the Reds in the top of the 9th. Riley would face the 7-8-9 hitters at the bottom of the Reds lineup, but one of them was McLain who already had two homers Sunday. Unlike Saturday, O’Brien came in throwing strikes that included a 2-2 heater for the first out of the 9th. Stephenson would then double down the right field line bringing up Arroyo as the tying run because St. Louis just can’t bear winning the easy way. Fortunately, Arroyo flew out to center for the second out of the 9th bringing up Blake Dunn as the Reds final hope. That hope would be dashed as he also flew out to center for the final out of the game.
After a successful homestand against the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals begin a road trip in New York Tuesday night taking on the Mets. The Cardinals starter is to be determined while the Mets are expected to start Stephen Kolek. First pitch scheduled for 6:10pm central time with the TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.
