Late Rally Falls Short as Cardinals Drop Another One in Kansas City

The Cardinal Chronicle
Late Rally Falls Short as Cardinals Drop Another One in Kansas City
Kansas City, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals made it interesting late Friday night.

That was the good news.er getting pounded by the Royals in Thursday night’s series opener, the Cardinals had a chance to steady themselves Friday at Kauffman Stadium. Instead, a two-run lead disappeared in one ugly inning, Kansas City added just enough insurance, and St. Louis’ ninth-inning rally came up one run short in a 6-5 loss.

It was not another 14-6 beating.

In some ways, it was more frustrating.

The Cardinals led early. Michael McGreevy had a 2-0 cushion. Seth Lugo was not overpowering. Kansas City was playing without some key regulars. And for three innings, it looked like St. Louis had found a much cleaner version of baseball than the one it played the night before.

Then came the fourth.

That inning changed the game.

St. Louis struck first in the opening inning. Ivan Herrera walked, Alec Burleson doubled to right, and Jordan Walker lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score Herrera and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. It was a good, simple baseball inning — get on, move a runner, bring him home.

The Cardinals added another run in the third. Nathan Church tripled, and Herrera followed with a single to right, pushing the lead to 2-0. At that point, St. Louis had done enough early to put the game in McGreevy’s hands.

For a while, he held it there.

McGreevy worked around a leadoff single in the first with a double play. He retired the Royals quietly in the second. He handled traffic again in the third. It was not flashy, but it was controlled.

Then the Royals opened the fourth by turning the game around.

Lane Thomas doubled. Jac Caglianone singled to center to score Thomas and cut the lead to 2-1. Salvador Perez singled. Michael Massey followed with a base hit to center, scoring Caglianone, and a throwing error by Nathan Church allowed Massey to move into scoring position.

Just like that, the game was tied.

McGreevy nearly had a chance to limit the damage, but Isaac Collins delivered the biggest swing of the inning, doubling deep to left to score John Rave and Massey. The Cardinals’ 2-0 lead had become a 4-2 deficit, and the tone of the night had completely changed.

That was the ballgame in miniature.

The Cardinals had the lead. The Royals applied pressure. St. Louis blinked.

McGreevy’s final line reflected the inning that got away: five innings, eight hits, five runs, five earned, one walk, two strikeouts and one home run allowed. He threw 95 pitches, 60 for strikes, and took the loss.

It was not a disaster start like Thursday night’s short outing from Matthew Liberatore, but it was not enough either. McGreevy gave the Cardinals five innings. He also gave up the four-run fourth and then surrendered another run in the fifth when Caglianone hit a solo home run to left.

That made it 5-2.

George Soriano took over in the sixth, but Kansas City added another run without needing a big swing. Nick Loftin walked, Rave singled, Collins reached, and Tyler Tolbert lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Loftin and extending the Royals’ lead to 6-2.

That run mattered.

At the time, it felt like insurance.

By the end of the ninth, it became the difference.

Matt Svanson gave the Cardinals two scoreless innings and at least kept the door from closing completely. He allowed no hits, walked one and struck out one, giving St. Louis a chance to put together one late push.

The offense finally found it in the ninth.

Lars Nootbaar reached, and Masyn Winn doubled deep to left, scoring Nootbaar and cutting the deficit to 6-3. Nelson Velázquez walked as a pinch-hitter, bringing the tying run to the plate. Blaze Jordan then came through with a single to right, scoring Velázquez and Winn to make it 6-5.

Suddenly, a game that had felt mostly out of reach had a pulse again.

But the Cardinals could not finish it.

Kansas City turned to Alex Lange, and the Royals survived. Jordan’s two-run single brought St. Louis within a run, but the rally ended there. The Cardinals had made the final score respectable and forced the Royals to sweat, but they had not erased the damage done in the middle innings.

That has been the story of the past two nights in Kansas City.

The Cardinals have shown fight. They have not shown enough pitching.

Friday’s offensive positives were real. Walker went 2-for-3 with an RBI and continues to look like the most dangerous hitter in the lineup. Herrera reached three times, going 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI. Burleson doubled. Church tripled, walked and scored. Winn doubled and drove in a run. Jordan continued to give the Cardinals competitive at-bats, finishing with the two-run single that nearly changed the ending.

There were enough pieces there to win a tighter, cleaner game.

But St. Louis also went seven innings without much damage after taking the early lead. The Cardinals scored in the first and third, then went quiet until the ninth. Seth Lugo held them to two runs, one earned, over six innings despite issuing three walks and not recording a strikeout.

That tells you the Cardinals had opportunities.

They did not cash enough of them.

Kansas City, meanwhile, did what St. Louis could not. The Royals made their pressure count. Caglianone went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBIs. Collins drove in two with his fourth-inning double. Massey drove in a run. Tolbert added the sacrifice fly. Thomas doubled and scored. Rave reached three times.

The Royals finished with six runs on nine hits.

The Cardinals scored five on eight.

The difference was not massive, but it was enough.

The final line showed how close the game became: Royals 6 runs, 9 hits, no errors; Cardinals 5 runs, 8 hits, 1 error.

That one error mattered. The fourth inning mattered. The tack-on run in the sixth mattered. The missed chances before the ninth mattered.

This was not a game to panic over by itself. One-run losses happen. Late rallies sometimes fall short. A club can survive nights like this over a long season.

But placed next to Thursday’s 14-6 loss and Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to San Diego, this one starts to look like part of a rough patch that needs to stop quickly.

The Cardinals are still a winning club. They are still in the National League race. They are still positioned better than most expected when the season began.

But the last three games have exposed some old questions.

Can the back end of the rotation hold up? Can the middle relief bridge enough innings? Can the lineup avoid long stretches of quiet baseball? Can the club stop the bleeding before a losing streak begins to change the feel of the month?

Friday did not answer those questions well enough.

The Cardinals showed fight. That is worth noting.

They also lost.

That is the part that counts in the standings.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit - Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals | Charlie Reidel, AP