Kyle Leahy has slowly established himself this season as one of the more reliable St. Louis Cardinals starters in this development year. He turned into something of a strikeout machine Friday night, but also gave up a ton of leadoff hits. How would that affect the end result? The answer is Leahy’s strikeouts and a bomb off of Herrera’s bat would be enough to put one in the win column for St. Louis.
The Rockies were the first to score in the top of the 2nd inning when TJ Rumfield led off with a single to center. Castro also singled which advanced Rumfield to third giving Colorado runners at first and third with nobody out. The Rockies would only get one run out of this RISP opportunity two batters later when Johnston grounded out to short giving Colorado a 1-0 lead.
The Rockies lead would not stand for long. The St. Louis Cardinals played some great small ball baseball in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Jimmy Crooks reached on an infield hit followed by a double by Masyn Winn giving St. Louis runners at 2nd and 3rd with no one out. Unlike the Rockies, the Cardinals would score both runners in scoring position with consecutive sacrifice flies from Nathan Church and Bryan Torres. Good basic baseball gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead after two innings.
St. Louis would add to their lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning when Iván Herrera turned on a 79 mph curveball and launched it into the left field seats 379 feet away increasing the Cardinals advantage to 3-1.
Colorado would peck away at the St. Louis lead in the top of the 4th inning when Runfield would leadoff with another single followed by a double from Willi Castro. Two batters later, Johnston would again drive in a run with a groundout reducing the Cardinals lead to 3-2.
Kyle Leahy’s start lasted 5 innings as he allowed 8 hits, but just 2 earned runs with 8 strikeouts and no walks. A solid with some spectacular strikeout moments kind of start.
Justin Bruihl handled the top of the 6th inning shutting the Rockies down 1-2-3. The Cardinals missed a prime scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 6th when they loaded the bases with no hits. Masyn Winn drew a one-out walk and then stole second. Nathan Church walked and two batters later pinch-hitter Blaze Jordan was hit in the back knee by a pitch which loaded the bases for JJ Wetherholt. All JJ could muster was a weak pop-out to third base to end the Cardinals 6th with no runs to show for a long inning. Bummer.
Newcomer Caleb Ferguson pitched around a one-out single by Beck in the top of the 7th inning to help maintain the slim Cardinals one-run lead. The Cardinals offered up some of the most pathetic swings in the bottom of the 7th inning. Alec Burleson struck out on a 92 mph four-seam heater that he was somehow way late on. After Iván Herrera’s impressive home run at-bat earlier, he had two completely lost looking swings that looked like he second-guessed himself halfway through the swing. That meant the Cardinals would have to survive the final two innings with just a one-run lead.
Caleb Ferguson would get the Cardinals one out into the top of the 8th inning when Ryne Stanek would enter the fray. The first batter he faced was Goodman who got robbed by Masyn Winn who dove to his left to grab what looked like a certain single and then rifled a throw to Burleson at first for the second out of the inning. Winn would also catch the last out of the inning when Stanek got Castro to pop-out. I would love to see Masyn develop into more of an offensive weapon, but I think he’s a part of the new St. Louis Cardinals core just for his glove alone.
Due to the fact that the Cardinals bats sucked were silent after Herrera’s home run, St. Louis entered the top of the 9th inning with a measly one-run lead that was in the hands of Riley O’Brien. He decided handing out a leadoff walk to Tovar would be the appropriate way to add some drama to Friday night’s contest. Fortunately, one of O’Brien’s sinkers would leave Kyle Karros bat and end in a double play greatly lessening the Rockies threat. He coaxed a weak grounder off the bat of Beck to wrap up a tight Cardinals victory.
It’s game 2 of the St. Louis Cardinals 3-game series hosting the Colorado Rockies Saturday night. Matthew Liberatore will start for the Cardinals while the Rockies will give the ball to Kyle Freeland. First pitch is scheduled for 6:15pm central time and the game broadcast will be available through Cardinals.tv.
