Five-Run First Buries Cardinals in Anaheim

The Cardinal Chronicle
Five-Run First Buries Cardinals in Anaheim
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals did not lose this one late.

They lost it early.

One night after walking off the field stunned by a hit-by-pitch finish, the Cardinals returned to Angel Stadium on Tuesday night and were buried almost immediately. The Los Angeles Angels scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and rode rookie right-hander Walbert Ureña to a 5-1 win over St. Louis.

There was no late collapse this time.

No strange ninth-inning ending.

No walk-off controversy.

Just a rough first inning, a quiet offense, and another road loss for a Cardinals club that continues to let winnable stretches of the schedule get away from it.

This one was decided before the Cardinals ever got comfortable.

St. Louis actually had the first chance of the night. After JJ Wetherholt grounded out to open the game, Iván Herrera singled to deep center and Alec Burleson followed with a single to shallow right. The Cardinals had two aboard with one out and Jordan Walker coming to the plate.

That was the chance to make Ureña work early.

It disappeared quickly.

Walker flied out to right, and Lars Nootbaar battled through a long at-bat before striking out swinging. The Cardinals had two hits in the opening inning but walked away with nothing.

Then the Angels made them pay.

Zach Neto opened the bottom of the first with a single to left. Mike Trout followed with a single of his own, but Nootbaar threw out Neto trying to advance to third. For a moment, it looked like Matthew Liberatore might have a chance to work around the traffic.

He did not.

Nolan Schanuel walked, putting two runners aboard for Jorge Soler. Soler doubled to deep left, scoring Trout and Schanuel and giving the Angels a 2-0 lead. Vaughn Grissom followed with an RBI single to right, bringing home Soler and stretching the lead to 3-0.

Then Jo Adell delivered the big blow.

Adell jumped on a pitch and drove a two-run homer to left field, his 15th home run of the season, putting Los Angeles ahead 5-0 before the inning was over.

That was the game.

Liberatore did strike out Oswald Peraza and José Siri to finally end the inning, but the damage had already been done. The Angels scored five runs on five hits in the opening frame, and the Cardinals spent the rest of the night trying to climb out of a hole they never seriously threatened to escape.

It was a rough first inning for Liberatore, and there is no way to soften it.

The Cardinals needed a stabilizing start after Monday’s ninth-inning loss. They needed a pitcher to set the tone, slow the Angels down, and give the offense a chance to play from a manageable spot.

Instead, St. Louis was down five runs after one inning.

That is a hard way to live on the road.

To Liberatore’s credit, he did settle down after the first. He got Logan O’Hoppe to ground out to begin the second, gave up a single to Neto, then got Trout to ground into a double play. In the third, he struck out Schanuel and Soler before getting Grissom to ground out. In the fourth, the Angels put runners on the corners with one out after singles from Adell and Siri, but Liberatore struck out O’Hoppe and got Neto to fly out to center.

That kept the game from getting worse.

The fifth brought another baserunner when Schanuel reached on an infield single, but Liberatore struck out Soler looking and Grissom swinging to end the inning. He had settled into the game by then, but the problem was obvious.

The first inning had already created too much damage.

Liberatore’s final line was 5 1/3 innings, nine hits, five runs, two walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 95 pitches. The strikeouts were there. The recovery was there. But five runs in the first inning gave the Cardinals almost no room to work with, especially against a pitcher throwing the way Ureña was.

Ureña was the story for the Angels.

The 22-year-old right-hander worked six innings, allowing one run on six hits, walking one and striking out five. He threw 98 pitches and overpowered the Cardinals early with premium velocity, reaching 100 mph or better throughout the night.

The Cardinals had chances, but Ureña kept finding a way to make the pitch he needed.

Bryan Torres walked to open the third, but Wetherholt struck out looking and Herrera grounded into a double play. Burleson singled to open the fourth and moved to second on a wild pitch, but Walker struck out, Nootbaar flied out and Masyn Winn lined out.

That was the pattern.

A little traffic.

No finish.

The Cardinals finally got on the board in the fifth. Nathan Church flied out to begin the inning, but Blaze Jordan reached on an infield single to shortstop. Torres followed with a single to deep right, moving Jordan to third and giving St. Louis runners on the corners with one out.

Wetherholt then hit into a fielder’s choice, scoring Jordan as Torres was forced at second.

That made it 5-1.

But that was all the Cardinals got.

Herrera grounded out to end the inning, and the Cardinals never put together another real push until the ninth, when Walker singled and José Fermín was hit by a pitch. By then, the deficit was still four runs, and Ryan Zeferjahn struck out Nootbaar, Winn and Jordan in the inning to finish it.

The Cardinals finished with one run on seven hits.

Burleson had three of them.

That says plenty.

Burleson went 3-for-4 and was the one Cardinal who seemed to consistently square up Ureña. Herrera, Walker, Jordan and Torres had the other hits. Wetherholt drove in the only run. The Cardinals struck out 11 times, did not draw enough walks, and were once again missing the one swing that could change the direction of the night.

The offense has had explosive games lately.

This was not one of them.

And that is part of the frustration.

The Cardinals have shown they can score in bunches. They put up 11 in Atlanta. They scored 17 at Wrigley Field. They have had nights where the lineup looked deep, dangerous and difficult to navigate.

Then come games like this one.

A few singles. Too many strikeouts. Missed chances. No home runs. No sustained pressure. No answer after the opponent lands the first punch.

That is not enough.

Not when the starter gives up five in the first.

Not when the club is trying to stop a losing stretch.

Not when the National League postseason race does not wait for anyone to find rhythm.

The Angels did not score after the first inning, but they did not need to. Matt Svanson entered in the sixth after Liberatore walked Peraza with one out and retired the next two hitters to keep the game at 5-1. Scott Blewett then gave the Cardinals two scoreless innings, working around two walks in the seventh and a Siri double in the eighth.

The bullpen did its job.

It was too late to change the night.

Los Angeles finished with five runs on 10 hits. Adell went 2-for-4 with the two-run homer. Soler drove in two with the first-inning double. Grissom added the RBI single. Neto and Siri each had two hits. Schanuel reached three times.

The Angels did not need to dominate all night.

They dominated the first inning.

That was enough.

For St. Louis, the larger concern is not just one loss. It is the way the losses are starting to stack up. Monday night was there for the taking before the Angels rallied in the ninth and won on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. Tuesday night was gone almost before it began.

Those are two very different losses.

They count the same.

The Cardinals came out of the All-Star break needing to steady themselves. Instead, they have stumbled through another rough stretch, and the questions that followed them into the break are still sitting there.

Do they have enough starting pitching?

Can the offense produce consistently enough?

Can they avoid the one bad inning that changes a game?

Can they stop letting lesser teams take series from them?

The Angels entered the night buried near the bottom of the American League West, but they have taken the first two games of this series. That is the uncomfortable part for the Cardinals. These are the kinds of games a contending club cannot afford to casually give away, especially after already dropping a difficult series in Arizona.

There is still one game left in Anaheim.

The Cardinals need it.

Not because one win fixes everything.

It does not.

But they need to salvage something from this series before heading into the next stop of the road trip. They need a cleaner start. They need more from the offense. They need to play with some urgency from the first inning, not after the game has already tilted too far the other way.

Tuesday night, the game was decided early.

The Cardinals had two hits in the first and did nothing with them.

The Angels had five hits in the first and scored five runs.

That was the difference.

Ureña took care of the rest.

Liberatore recovered, but too late.

Burleson kept swinging, but there was not enough around him.

And the Cardinals walked off the field in Anaheim with another loss, another quiet offensive night, and another reminder that the margin for a team trying to stay in the hunt is getting thinner by the day.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit:  The Angels’ Jo Adell heads to second after hitting a two-run home run as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson watches Tuesday at Angel Stadium.  (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)