Cardinals Shut Out in the Bronx
THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Shut Out in the Bronx
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
One night after the St. Louis Cardinals swung their way to a big win in the Bronx, the bats went quiet.
Very quiet.
The Cardinals were shut out by the New York Yankees, 2-0, Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, wasting a strong start from Hunter Dobbins and missing too many chances in a game that was there to be taken.
This was not a blowout.
This was not a night when the pitching staff failed to give the offense a chance.
This was the opposite.
Dobbins kept the Cardinals in the game. Caleb Ferguson came in and did his job. The staff held the Yankees to five hits and two runs.
Both runs came on solo home runs.
That should be enough to give a lineup a chance to win.
The Cardinals just did not score.
After Monday night’s 13-7 win over the Yankees, Tuesday turned into a completely different kind of game. Instead of a slugfest, this was a pitching duel between Dobbins and Ryan Weathers, and for most of the night, the Cardinals had enough baserunners to make it interesting.
They just never made it count.
New York broke through in the bottom of the second inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted a solo home run into the right-field seats, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead. It was the kind of swing that can change a low-scoring game quickly, especially on a night when runs were hard to find.
Dobbins did not let the inning grow.
That mattered.
He settled back in and continued to keep the Yankees from building much of anything. New York had a lead, but it never felt like the game was out of reach. Dobbins kept working, kept the ball on the ground when he needed to, and gave the Cardinals exactly the kind of start they should be able to support.
The Cardinals had their first real opening in the middle innings, but Weathers kept shutting the door. He was not overpowering in a dramatic way, but he was effective. He worked six scoreless innings, allowed four hits and struck out six, keeping St. Louis from finding the big swing or the timely knock.
The Yankees added their second run in the fifth, and it came with a little extra sting.
George Lombard Jr., making his major league debut, got a sweeper from Dobbins and drove it into the left-field seats for his first major league hit and first major league home run. The solo shot made it 2-0 New York.
That was all the Yankees needed.
Dobbins finished with a line that deserved better: 6.1 innings, four hits, two runs, two earned, three walks and four strikeouts. He threw 92 pitches, 56 for strikes, and both runs against him came on solo homers.
That is a start a team should win more often than not.
The Cardinals did not.
Their best chance against Weathers came in the sixth. JJ Wetherholt drew a two-out walk, and Iván Herrera followed with a single up the middle. Wetherholt went first to third, giving St. Louis runners at the corners and finally putting real pressure on the Yankees.
José Fermín worked the count full and put a good swing on a 94 mph sinker, but he lined it right at the left fielder to end the inning.
That was the kind of night it was.
Good enough contact.
Wrong spot.
No runs.
The Cardinals had another major chance in the eighth. Pedro Pagés singled, Bryan Torres walked, and Wetherholt hit a grounder that could have ended the inning, but the Yankees could not complete the double play. New York then intentionally walked Alec Burleson, loading the bases and choosing to face Nelson Velázquez.
That was the moment.
Bases loaded.
Two outs.
Down two.
A chance to flip the game.
Velázquez struck out on three straight splitters.
Threat over.
Game still 2-0.
That was the Cardinals’ last best shot.
Caleb Ferguson, making another appearance after joining the Cardinals from Cincinnati, gave St. Louis exactly what it needed out of the bullpen. He entered in the seventh with two runners on and one out, then got a double-play ball on his first pitch to end the inning.
Ferguson stayed on and worked a scoreless eighth, finishing with 1.2 scoreless innings. He allowed one hit, struck out one and kept the Yankees from adding on.
Again, the pitching staff did its job.
The offense did not.
In the ninth, Masyn Winn lined out to Chisholm at second. Blaze Jordan struck out. Nathan Church struck out, with the final call confirmed after an ABS challenge.
That ended it.
The Cardinals finished with six hits, three walks and seven left on base. They had traffic. They had chances. They had the tying run on base in the eighth and the bases loaded with two outs.
They came away with nothing.
That is the part that should bother them most.
Dobbins gave the Cardinals a real start. Ferguson gave them clean relief. The Yankees scored twice, and only twice. On the road, against a playoff-caliber club, that is the kind of pitching performance a team has to turn into a win.
St. Louis could not.
After Monday night’s offensive explosion, Tuesday was a reminder that one big night does not fix the larger issue. The Cardinals have had too many games lately where the pitching has held up, but the lineup has not delivered enough in the moments that decide the game.
This was another one.
The Cardinals did not get run out of Yankee Stadium.
They got shut out of it.
And that feels worse in some ways, because this was a winnable game from start to finish.
The Yankees needed only two swings.
The Cardinals needed one answer.
They never found it.
The Cardinals finished with six hits, three walks and seven runners left on base. They had chances, but could not produce the swing they needed.
The Bottom Line
Hunter Dobbins gave the Cardinals a chance to win.
The bullpen kept the game close.
The offense did not do enough.
The Yankees scored twice on two solo home runs, and that was enough to beat St. Louis, 2-0, at Yankee Stadium.
When your pitching staff allows two runs, you have to find a way to win.
Tuesday night, the Cardinals did not.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Hunter Dobbins, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB