Herrera Delivers in 10th as Cardinals Stun Cubs, 3-2

The Cardinal Chronicle
Herrera Delivers in 10th as Cardinals Stun Cubs, 3-2
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals had spent most of Wednesday night wasting a pitching gem.

Then Iván Herrera changed the ending.

In a game that sat scoreless through nine innings, the Cardinals looked like they were headed toward another painful loss when Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run homer in the top of the 10th to give the Chicago Cubs a 2-0 lead at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals had done almost nothing offensively all night.

They had been quieted by Matthew Boyd.

They had failed to cash in their best chance in the sixth.

They had watched Dustin May leave after five shutout innings with nothing to show for it.

Then the bottom of the 10th finally gave St. Louis life.

The Cardinals pushed across one run to cut the deficit to 2-1, and Herrera delivered the big blow against Trent Thornton, putting the Cardinals in position to finish off a 3-2 walk-off win over the Cubs.

It was not clean.

It was not easy.

It was absolutely necessary.

After dropping the first two games of the series to Chicago, including Tuesday night’s ugly 10-2 loss, the Cardinals badly needed something to change the tone. For nine innings, it looked like they might waste their best chance. The pitching staff had done everything possible to keep them alive, but the offense remained stuck.

Then, in the 10th, the Cardinals finally answered.

Herrera gave them the swing, the contact, the moment and the win.

For St. Louis, that mattered for more than just one night.

The Cardinals came into the game needing a response. The Cubs had taken control of the series early, and with the trade deadline rapidly approaching, every game carries a different kind of weight. This is the stretch where the front office is watching. This is the stretch where the roster is being judged. This is the stretch where wins and losses can shape what comes next.

Wednesday night gave them a win.

Barely.

But barely still counts.

May started for the Cardinals and gave St. Louis exactly what it needed. The right-hander worked five scoreless innings, allowing one hit, walking two and striking out three. He kept the Cubs off the board, worked through traffic and gave the Cardinals a chance to win a low-scoring game.

With the deadline closing in, there is no way to watch May pitch without wondering whether it could be one of his final appearances in a Cardinals uniform. If it was, he left them with a good one.

He did his job.

The offense did not do much with it.

The Cubs had their first real threat in the fourth when Alex Bregman doubled, but May kept the inning from turning into anything. He continued to work clean enough baseball to hand the game to the bullpen still scoreless. Given the way the Cardinals have leaked runs lately, that was not a small thing.

Justin Bruihl handled the sixth.

Ryne Stanek worked through the seventh and ended it with a big strikeout of Dansby Swanson.

George Soriano took the eighth.

Riley O’Brien handled the ninth and got Swanson to fly out to Jordan Walker in right field, keeping the game scoreless and giving the Cardinals one more chance to win it in regulation.

They could not.

That had been the story most of the night.

Boyd gave the Cubs seven scoreless innings, scattering hits and keeping St. Louis from ever building sustained pressure. The Cardinals had singles, a double from Herrera and a few chances, but the big hit did not come. The best opportunity arrived in the sixth when the Cardinals loaded the bases, only for Boyd to escape by retiring Blaze Jordan.

That was the kind of inning that usually decides games.

For a while, it felt like it had.

Jacob Webb came out of the Cubs bullpen and struck out the side in the eighth. Caleb Thielbar forced extra innings by getting through the ninth. The Cardinals had received good pitching all night, but the offense looked like it might make sure none of it mattered.

Then the 10th inning turned the game upside down.

Luis Gastelum took over for St. Louis in the top half, and the extra-inning runner gave Chicago immediate pressure. Crow-Armstrong made it hurt. He drove a two-run homer to right-center field, giving the Cubs a 2-0 lead and bringing the same old frustration back into the ballpark.

The Cardinals had held Chicago scoreless for nine innings.

One swing changed everything.

That is baseball in extra innings. One pitch can undo a whole night of good work. Gastelum’s mistake put the Cardinals in a hole that felt bigger than two runs because of how quiet the lineup had been all night.

But the Cardinals did not fold.

They finally put together the inning they had been searching for.

With the automatic runner already in scoring position, St. Louis got the first run home and turned the game over to Herrera with the Cubs still trying to protect a one-run lead. Herrera did what the Cardinals had failed to do for most of the night.

He delivered.

The tying run came home.

The Cardinals had life.

And moments later, St. Louis finished the comeback, walking off the Cubs, 3-2.

For Herrera, it was another important moment in a season where his bat has continued to matter. There are fair questions about his defensive home, his long-term fit and how the Cardinals should structure the catching position going forward. But when the game comes down to a late at-bat and the Cardinals need a professional hitter, Herrera remains one of the better options on the roster.

Wednesday night was a reminder why.

The final line will show a 3-2 win, but the path to get there was strange. The Cardinals were shut out for nine innings and still won. The Cubs did almost nothing offensively for nine innings and nearly stole it with one extra-inning swing. May left with five shutout innings and no decision. The bullpen covered four scoreless innings before Gastelum gave up the two-run homer in the 10th.

Then Herrera flipped the ending.

That is the part that matters most.

The Cardinals finished with enough offense to win, but nobody should confuse this with a breakout. The bats were still cold for most of the night. The Cardinals left chances on the field, especially in the sixth. They struck out too much. They did not make Boyd uncomfortable often enough. They needed the automatic runner and one final push to avoid wasting a tremendous pitching night.

That cannot be ignored.

But neither should the win.

After the way the first two games of the series went, the Cardinals needed to show some fight. They had looked flat. They had looked overmatched. They had looked like a club drifting toward the deadline instead of making a serious push to control its own direction.

Wednesday night did not fix all of that.

But it stopped the bleeding.

The pitching staff deserved the win. May set the tone. Bruihl, Stanek, Soriano and O’Brien carried the game through nine scoreless innings. Even after the Cubs finally broke through in the 10th, the Cardinals still found a way back.

That is a good sign.

The offense still has to be better. There is no way around that. A club trying to stay in the postseason picture cannot keep asking its pitching staff to survive on no margin. May gave them five shutout innings. The bullpen gave them enough. For nine innings, the lineup gave them nothing.

Then Herrera changed the story.

Sometimes that is what a good hitter is supposed to do.

The Cardinals did not win this game because they played a complete offensive night. They won because the pitching staff kept them alive long enough for one late swing sequence to matter.

They won because Herrera delivered.

They won because, for one night, they did not let the Cubs finish the job.

St. Louis still has work to do. The series is not over. The deadline is almost here. The roster questions are not going away. The offense still has to prove it can produce more consistently, and the bullpen still has to prove it can hold up.

But Wednesday night gave the Cardinals something they badly needed.

A win over the Cubs.

A walk-off moment.

And a reminder that even when the night looks dead, one big at-bat can change everything.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.

Check out The Cardinal Chronicle for more St. Louis Cardinals coverage, daily farm reports, prospect updates and old-school baseball commentary:
www.cardinalchronicle.com

Photo Credit: Ivan Herrera, St. Louis | MLB