Liberatore, Ninth-Inning Rally Lift Cardinals Past Blue Jays

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Liberatore, Ninth-Inning Rally Lift Cardinals Past Blue Jays
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals needed something good to happen Sunday afternoon in Toronto.

Matthew Liberatore gave them six innings of it.

Then, after the Blue Jays tied the game late and threatened to send the Cardinals toward another frustrating finish, the offense finally answered with the kind of ninth inning that has been missing too often.

St. Louis scored four times in the top of the ninth and beat Toronto, 5-1, at Rogers Centre, avoiding a sweep and closing the series with a much-needed win.

It was not an offensive masterpiece from start to finish.

For most of the afternoon, it looked like another Cardinals game being played on the thinnest possible margin. One run. One mistake. One swing. One late inning deciding everything.

But this time, St. Louis got the late inning.

This time, the Cardinals finished.

That matters.

Liberatore set the tone with one of his best starts of the season. The left-hander worked six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, walking one and striking out seven. He threw 85 pitches, 56 for strikes, and gave the Cardinals exactly what they needed after dropping the first two games of the series.

He attacked the zone.

He missed bats.

He kept Toronto from building anything.

For a pitcher who has had an uneven season, this was the kind of outing that reminds you why the Cardinals keep trying to build something with him. Liberatore was under control, worked ahead often enough, and did not give the Blue Jays the free traffic that usually turns into trouble.

Toronto’s lineup never really got comfortable against him.

That was the game’s foundation.

The Cardinals’ offense gave him one early run, though not much else for most of the day.

In the third inning, Nathan Church drew a walk and eventually came around when Lars Nootbaar doubled to left field, giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead. It was a good swing from Nootbaar, a needed two-out run, and enough to let Liberatore pitch from ahead.

For a while, that looked like it might be the whole game.

Max Scherzer kept the Cardinals quiet beyond that. The veteran right-hander gave Toronto six innings of one-run baseball, allowing four hits, walking one and striking out five. He was not overpowering in the way he once was, but he still knew how to navigate a lineup and keep the Cardinals from adding on.

That kept the game tight.

Too tight.

The Cardinals have lived in that kind of game too often lately. Good pitching, limited offense, and every missed chance feeling larger as the innings move along. Sunday afternoon was heading down that same road.

Liberatore gave them six shutout innings.

Ryan Stanek worked the seventh and had to deal with immediate trouble when George Springer tripled off the right-field wall. But Stanek escaped, striking out Alejandro Kirk and getting Ernie Clement to foul out to keep the Cardinals in front, 1-0.

That was a major moment.

At that point, St. Louis was six outs away from salvaging the finale and getting out of Toronto with at least one win. The pitching staff had done its job. The offense had not done much, but the lead was still there.

Then came the eighth.

George Soriano took over and got the first two outs. But Andrés Giménez singled, moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, and Luis Urías ripped a double down the left-field line to tie the game, 1-1.

Just like that, Liberatore’s win was gone.

Just like that, the Cardinals were back in another late-inning fight.

And after the way the last week has gone, it would have been easy for this one to slip away.

It did not.

The Cardinals finally put together a real rally in the ninth.

Masyn Winn started it with a leadoff walk, and Bryan Torres followed with a single to right. That gave St. Louis two runners on with nobody out, and José Fermín came through with the biggest swing of his afternoon, lining a single to center to score Winn and put the Cardinals back in front, 2-1.

That was the kind of situational at-bat the Cardinals have needed more often.

Church could not get a bunt down, popping it up for the first out, and Blaze Jordan reached on a fielder’s choice that kept the inning alive. The Cardinals were still clinging to a one-run lead when Nootbaar hit a ground ball to second.

The Blue Jays had a chance to end the inning.

They did not.

Urías threw the ball away, allowing Torres to score and pushing the Cardinals’ lead to 3-1. Jordan moved to third, and Nootbaar ended up at second. It was the kind of mistake Toronto had avoided for most of the series, and the Cardinals finally took advantage.

Jordan Walker made sure the inning hurt.

Walker lined a single to left field, scoring Jordan and Nootbaar, and suddenly the Cardinals had a 5-1 lead. After spending most of the afternoon trying to protect one run, St. Louis had given itself breathing room.

That swing changed the entire feel of the game.

Walker finished with two hits and two RBIs. Nootbaar drove in the first run and scored in the ninth. Fermín had the go-ahead hit. Church reached twice and scored. Torres singled and scored. Jordan scored as part of the ninth-inning push.

It was not a night when the Cardinals’ offense rolled from the first inning through the ninth.

But when the game asked for one more push, they finally delivered.

Riley O’Brien handled the bottom of the ninth. Kazuma Okamoto singled and moved up on an error in center field, but O’Brien did not let the inning turn into drama. He got Springer to line out, struck out Kirk and finished the game when Clement grounded out to Masyn Winn.

The Cardinals had their win.

And they needed it.

St. Louis had dropped the first two games in Toronto, scoring only one run in each loss. Friday night, Kyle Leahy gave them six innings of one-run baseball and the offense did not support him. Saturday, Quinn Mathews made his major-league debut, but the Cardinals again could not generate enough.

Sunday could have followed the same script.

It nearly did.

Instead, Liberatore gave them six shutout innings, the bullpen held the game close, and the offense finally broke through late.

That does not erase the problems.

The Cardinals still scored only one run over the first eight innings. They still had to wait until the ninth to find separation. They still need more consistent production, especially from a lineup trying to keep the club in the postseason conversation.

But a win is a win.

And this was a good one because of how it was built.

Liberatore gave the Cardinals a starter’s performance worth building around. Stanek escaped a big spot. Soriano gave up the tying run but kept the game from getting away. O’Brien closed it without letting Toronto back in.

Then the offense did something it has failed to do too often.

It answered.

That is the important part.

The Cardinals could have folded after Toronto tied the game in the eighth. They could have wasted another strong start. They could have left Rogers Centre with another series sweep and another round of questions about where this season is headed.

Instead, they fought back.

They won the ninth inning.

They won the game.

Now St. Louis heads to New York for a series against the Yankees with at least a little momentum and a reminder that this club is still capable of responding when the game starts to tilt the wrong way.

For one afternoon in Toronto, the pitching was excellent, the late offense finally showed up, and the Cardinals avoided the sweep.

That was enough.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB