The St. Louis Cardinals have been described as resilient this season. Does that adjective still apply? No better way to find out than to see how the team would compete against the Los Angeles Angels after arguably their worst defeat of the season losing a 7-run lead in Arizona. Monday is a new day and Kyle Leahy led the troops into battle in Anaheim. However, the end of the game would bring back the disappointment from the day prior unfortunately.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead in the top of the 2nd inning when Jordan Walker smoked a double off of the left field wall to leadoff the inning. Lars Nootbaar followed Jordan’s double with a single to left giving the Cardinals runners at first and third with no outs. After Masyn Winn struck out, Nathan Church ripped a single to right scoring Walker and giving St. Louis an early 1-0 lead.
Blaze Jordan then grounded out to third on a ball that Angels third baseman Guzman couldn’t come up with cleanly which allowed Nootbaar to score from third on the fielder’s choice giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
The LA Angels cut the Cardinals lead in half in the bottom of the 3rd inning Jo Adell turned an 86 mph curveball that caught too much of the plate into a no-doubt 389 foot home run into the left field seats making it 2-1 Cardinals after 3 innings.
Potentially key play of the game happened in the top of the 4th inning when Nathan Church hit a 2-out double, but came off the base sliding into second where the safe call on the field was overturned on the Angels challenge.
Neither the Cardinals or Angels scored in the middle innings, but St. Louis had some loud outs including a 96 mph four-seam fastball that Alec Burleson barreled in the top of the 6th inning with an exit velocity of 106 mph that landed in Mike Trout’s glove at the top of the centerfield wall. Jordan Walker followed Burleson’s loud out with one of his own also to center for a line drive out that ended the Cardinals 6th inning.
Kyle Leahy did give the Cardinals a quality start even though he got minimal run support through the first 6 innings. He only allowed 3 hits, struck out 4 and didn’t walk anyone. Very nice.
Ryne Stanek walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the 7th inning, but for once that didn’t come back to cause issues as he held the Angels scoreless as he got a strikeout, pop-out and line-out to end the Los Angeles 7th.
George Soriano was tasked by manager Oli Marmol to maintain the Cardinals one-run lead in the bottom of the 8th inning. He was greeted by a very loud single by Jo Adell who ripped one of his 89 mph changeups to left leading off the inning. George struck out Guzman looking with a 86 mph sweeper. Meckler then ripped a changeup lineout to Burleson at first on a ball that looked like it hit the dirt, but it was ruled a lineout, but Alec was unable to double up Adell. It fortunately wouldn’t matter after Neto flew out innocently to Walker in right to end the Angels 8th inning.
I can’t speak for Cardinals Nation as a whole, but pretty sure a majority of us would feel better if the team could have added to their one-run lead in the top of the 9th inning. Unfortunately, Iván Herrera struck out (for the 4th time tonight) followed by a whiff from Alec Burleson. Jordan Walker managed a two-out walk and then stole second to get into scoring position. Lars Nootbaar came close to bumping up the lead as he drove a 90 mph slider to the left field wall, but it was tracked down by Angels outfield Josh Lowe for the final out of the Cardinals 9th inning.
Riley O’Brien came in to secure the win for the St. Louis Cardinals, but is that how it would turn out? The TV crew shared the stunning stat the the Los Angeles Angels were 0-48 when trailing after 8 innings. Future Hall-of-Famer Mike Trout led off for the Angels. O’Brien struck him out with a nasty 96 mph sinker. Nolan Schanuel was next up for LA and he ripped a solid single into right-center giving the Angels the tying run on base and the potential winning run at the plate in the form of Jorge Soler. Soler was 0-3 with 2 strikeouts in the game up to that point. After running the count full, Riley plunked Soler giving the Angels runners at first and second with just one out. Vaughan Grissom nearly ended the game with a ball that slammed off of the right field wall scoring pinch-runner Peraza tying the game 2-2. The umpires held a review that confirmed the ball was not a home run, so the Cardinals were given a brief reprieve. The Cardinals intentionally walked Josh Lowe to load the bases in hopes of a double-play to send the game to extras. That left the game in the balance as Jo Adell walked up to the plate having homered earlier in the game. Riley did the unthinkable and threw 4 straight balls with the last one hitting Adell giving the Angels a disastrous walk-off win. This, my fellow Cardinals brothers and sisters, is the low point of the season right here.
The St. Louis Cardinals will try to find a way to crawl out of this hole with a Tuesday night clash versus the Los Angeles Angels. Matthew Liberatore will start for the Cardinals while the Angels will give the ball to Walbert Ureña. First pitch is scheduled for 8:38pm central time at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Game TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.
