What was supposed to be an off-day for the St. Louis Cardinals became a rather important encounter with the Arizona Diamondbacks thanks to a game postponed by weather a few weeks ago. Michael McGreevy was in charge of the Cardinals fortunes, but the odd feeling matinee game didn’t go as expected. As a matter of fact, the wheels would come off the Cardinals bullpen by the time it was over and the end result could only be categorized as embarassing.
When I say expected, the anticipation for a Michael McGreevy start is a lot of ground balls and a relatively low score. As it turns out, the Diamondbacks were making hard contact and doing it often Thursday afternoon, but more on that later.
The St. Louis Cardinals jumped out to a quick lead in the top of the 1st inning as JJ Wetherholt reached on an infield single. He was followed by Jordan Walker who was batting second in the lineup Thursday. Jordan received a warm ovation from the Busch Stadium crowd in his first appearance since his historic Home Run Derby win a week and a half ago. Walker rewarded the applause with reason for more applause as he rocked a double to the wall scoring Wetherholt and giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead.
Alec Burleson followed Walker’s double with a infield single of his own which moved Jordan Walker to third. Lars Nootbaar then smacked a single which scored Jordan and doubled the Cardinals lead to 2-0. It felt like the Cardinals were going to explode for a really big inning. Unfortunately, it just felt that way as reality would prove that inaccurate. Masyn Winn flied out to center and then Jose Fermin walked to load the bases with just one out. The Cardinals could not do anything with those many runners in scoring position as Nathan Church struck out and Blaze Jordan popped out. The St. Louis 1st inning is one of those cases where scoring 2 runs felt like a defeat or at least a big missed opportunity.
The Cardinals 2-run lead would remain until the top of the 4th inning when the Arizona Diamondbacks jumped in front of St. Louis. It started with a McGreevy walk of Kepler who advanced to third on a double by Del Castillo. After Tawa hit a sacrifice fly scoring Kepler cutting the Cardinals lead to 2-1, Tyler Locklear turned on an 86 mph Michael McGreevy changeup and deposited it over the left field wall just inside the foul pole giving the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead.
Arizona would get another run in the top of the 5th inning when Corbin Carroll led off with a triple. Two batters later, Moreno managed to lift a sacrifice fly to left scoring Carroll and increasing the Diamondbacks lead to 4-2. Michael McGreevy’s effort would end with one out in the top of the 7th inning. His stat line for the game was 6 1/3 innings allowing 7 hits while striking out 3 and walking 3. Manager Oli Marmol brought Justin Bruihl into the game to try and keep Arizona close. He was successful for the rest of the 7th inning, but allowed a loud double to Moreno who led off the Arizona top of the 8th inning. That would be costly two batters later when Del Castillo snuck a single through the left side of the infield giving the Diamondbacks a more significant 5-2 lead.
Matt Svanson was the Cardinals bullpen answer for the rest of the 8th inning, but the beneficiary was the Arizona Diamondbacks fantasy league stats. He immediately walked Tawa and then gave up a single to Vargas to load the bases. Tyler Locklear got in on the singles parade, too, which scored Del Castillo increasing the Diamondbacks lead to 6-2. That brought former Cardinal Nolan Arenado to the plate with the bases loaded and after he received a nice ovation, he (you guessed it) singled scoring yet another run giving Arizona a 7-2 lead. To add to the St. Louis misery, Corbin Carroll managed a sacrifice fly giving the Diamondbacks an even 8 runs which might as well have been 50 the way the Cardinals offense has struggled lately. To add to the degree of difficulty, Matt Svanson walked Perdomo to load the bases (again). That gave Moreno the chance to hit (wait for it) a single which upped the Arizona lead to 9-2. The Diamondbacks scored another run in the top of the 9th to make it 10-2, but does it really matter?
I would love for this to be the part where I document how the Cardinals offense exploded for a late inning rally, those of us who have been paying attention lately know that’s not realistic. St. Louis went down in order in the bottom of the 8th inning but the bottom of the 9th inning showed some positive energy. We did get a couple of runs on a Bryan Torres single with JJ Wetherholt and Nathan Church on base to make the score a slightly less disgusting at 10-4. Alec Burleson and Lars Nootbaar singles would add tallies making the game appear much more interesting than it actually was at 10-6. The truth is the 4 runs the Cardinals managed to score in the bottom of the 9th inning made the collapse of the bullpen even more aggravating. Imagine what Thursday’s game might have been if the relief arms could have kept Arizona from piling on? We’ll never know.
There’s no way to frame the Cardinals performance Thursday as anything other than disappointing. St. Louis could have leapfrogged Arizona in the Wild Card standings Thursday. Instead, they made many of us wonder if a winning record the remainder of this season is even possible. The upcoming series against the Reds and Cubs will likely decide the fate of this team as it approaches the trade deadline.
The St. Louis Cardinals begin a crucial 3-game series against their NL Central rivals Cincinnati Reds Friday night. Dustin May will take the mound for the Cardinals while the villains Reds will start RHP Rhett Lowder. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm central time and the TV broadcast will be handled by Cardinals.tv.
