Cards Rally, Fall Short Against Orioles

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Rally, Fall Short Against Orioles
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals spent most of Wednesday night trying to recover from another ugly start. They made it all the way back, only to lose it late.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand doubled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning off Riley O’Brien, and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Cardinals, 8-7, at Busch Stadium.

The loss was the Cardinals’ fifth straight and another frustrating blow for a club that has gone from fighting to stay in the National League Wild Card race to trying to stop the season from slipping away.

St. Louis trailed 7-0 after the top of the second, tied the game with a six-run fifth, then failed to score over the final four innings. O’Brien, who has carried the back end of the bullpen for much of the season, was tagged with the loss after allowing one run on two hits in the ninth.

Baltimore wasted little time putting the Cardinals in trouble. Michael McGreevy retired the first two batters in the first, but Gunnar Henderson singled, Samuel Basallo walked, and Encarnacion-Strand singled to right to score Henderson. Dylan Beavers followed with an RBI single, and Leody Taveras hit a three-run homer to right, giving the Orioles a 5-0 lead before the Cardinals came to bat.

Pete Alonso made it 7-0 in the second with a two-run homer after Carlos Narváez was hit by a pitch.

The Cardinals got one run back in the bottom of the second when Nolan Gorman homered to right, his eighth of the season, but St. Louis still had a long climb ahead.

McGreevy settled down enough to get through five innings, but the early damage shaped the rest of the night. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits, walked two and struck out three. It was a difficult outing at a time when the Cardinals needed a steady one after Tuesday’s 13-1 loss in the series opener.

To their credit, the Cardinals did not fold.

The comeback came in the fifth against Kyle Bradish. Bryan Torres singled, JJ Wetherholt walked, and Iván Herrera singled to load the bases. Alec Burleson followed with a two-run single to center, cutting Baltimore’s lead to 7-3.

Jordan Walker then doubled to left, scoring Herrera and moving Burleson to third. Nathan Church followed with a two-run double to left, bringing home Walker and Burleson and cutting the deficit to 7-6.

Alex Hoppe replaced Bradish, but José Fermín grounded out to shortstop to score Church and tie the game.

In one inning, the Cardinals had erased nearly all the damage from the first two frames. Busch Stadium had life again, and St. Louis had a chance to turn a miserable start into one of its better comeback wins of the season.

The bullpen gave the Cardinals that chance. Luis Gastelum struck out the side in a clean sixth. Ryne Stanek worked around a walk in the seventh, and George Soriano got through the eighth despite allowing a hit and a walk.

But the Cardinals’ offense could not finish the job. They had chances after tying the game, including an eighth-inning opportunity when Pedro Pagés walked and Wetherholt drove a ball to deep center, but St. Louis could not push across another run.

Baltimore finally broke through in the ninth. Basallo led off with a single, and Luis Vázquez entered as a pinch runner. Encarnacion-Strand then drove a double to right-center, scoring Vázquez and putting the Orioles back in front, 8-7.

O’Brien limited the damage to one run, but the Cardinals could not answer in the bottom of the ninth.

Encarnacion-Strand finished 4-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs. Taveras drove in three with his first-inning homer, and Alonso added two RBIs with his second-inning shot. Baltimore finished with 13 hits and did just enough late after letting the seven-run lead disappear.

For the Cardinals, Torres had three hits and scored a run. Herrera had three hits and scored once. Burleson drove in two, Church drove in two, Walker doubled and drove in a run, and Gorman homered.

The offense did enough to make the game winnable after the early collapse. The problem was the same one that keeps following this club: too much damage early, not enough finish late.

The Cardinals have now lost five straight games, and this one carried its own kind of frustration. Tuesday was simply ugly. Wednesday was different. This was a game where St. Louis fought back, tied it, had the momentum, and still could not close the door.

That is a hard one to take.

The Orioles came into the series below .500, but they have played with urgency. The Cardinals came home needing to repair the damage from Philadelphia. Instead, they have dropped the first two games of the series to Baltimore and fallen deeper into a stretch that is getting harder to explain away.

There are still games left, but the margin keeps shrinking. Comebacks are good. Fight matters. But this time of year, the final score matters most.

Orioles 8, Cardinals 7.

A seven-run comeback.

A ninth-inning loss.

Another frustrating night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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