The St. Louis Cardinals needed a game like they had Wednesday night at Busch Stadium to turn around their recent downturn. Andre Pallante gave the Cardinals a great start and many bats in the lineup were productive including Alec Burleson, Jordan Walker and Nelson Velázquez as St. Louis beat Texas.
The Cardinals did not waste any time getting the offense going as Masyn Winn walked to open up the Cardinals bottom of the 1st. After Ivan Herrera popped out, Jordan Walker hit into a fielder’s choice, but St. Louis managed to put together a 2-out rally anyway. Nelson Velázquez walked and then Alec Burleson turned on a 97 mph four-seam fastball and drove it into right field giving the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead.
The Texas Rangers would pull even (temporarily) in the top of the 3rd inning as Kyle Higashioka singled to center and then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Pallante. Two batters later, Josh Jung singled him in tying the game 1-1.
The Cardinals would retake the lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning after Jordan Walker singled and then Nelson Velázquez crushed a double giving St. Louis runners at second and third with no one out. Alec Burleson added his own double giving the Cardinals their lead back at 3-1. It could have been more, though, as Alec Burleson was stranded at third base after a fielder’s choice from Jose Fermin and strikeouts by Nolan Gorman and Thomas Saggese. Saggese would redeem himself just two innings later.
The Cardinals offense would put more runs on the board in both the bottom of the 5th and 6th innings. After Jose Fermin doubled in the Cardinals 5th, Thomas Saggese did him one better by cracking a triple to right giving St. Louis a 4-1 lead. In the bottom of the 6th, the Cardinals would start another two-out rally when Jordan Walker singled and then stole second. Nelson Velázquez would strike again singling to right and scoring Walker giving the Cardinals a somewhat secure 5-1 lead. Or, so they thought.
Andre Pallante had his best stuff working Wednesday night as he tossed 5 2/3 allowing only 1 earned run while striking out 5 and walking 2. He would be relieved by JoJo Romero who got the final out of the 6th inning getting out of a jam created by Andre, but would run into trouble himself in the top of the 7th inning. Pinch-hitter Justin Foscue doubled and then JoJo walked Higashioka. Joc Pederson made him regret it by driving a triple into the right-center field gap scoring both runners making it just 5-3 Cardinals. Fortunately, Ryne Stanek would come into the game and strikeout Josh Jung and get Brandon Nimmo to pop out stranding Pederson at third base. Stanek would stay in the game and pitch a solid top of the 8th inning that was refreshingly almost drama-free with just one single allowed.
Riley O’Brien came in to close out the top of the 9th inning in an effort to post a positive bounce-back from the disastrous Tuesday night effort. He unfortunately struggled with his control again walking the first batter he faced, Kyle Higashioka. The Rangers made the interesting choice to have Michael Helman lay down a sacrifice bunt to move Higashioka to second base. That brought up Joc Pedersen as the potential tying run. He made all of us hold our breath as he flew out to very deep left-center for the second out. Whew. The final Rangers hope, Josh Jung, popped out on the first pitch he saw to lock up a Cardinals victory at 5-3.
The Cardinals have a much-needed day off Thursday to rest up before starting a weekend homestand against the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. Kyle Leahy is the scheduled starter Friday night with Brady Singer the expected starter for the Reds. First pitch scheduled for 7:15pm central time with the TV broadcast available on Cardinals.tv.
