Mathews Debuts, Cardinals Fall in Toronto

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Mathews Debuts, Cardinals Fall in Toronto
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

Quinn Mathews finally got the call.

The St. Louis Cardinals finally got a look at one of the more anticipated arms in their system.

And for five innings Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre, Mathews gave the Cardinals a chance.

The problem was everything around him.

The Cardinals collected hits, put runners on base, and had several chances to turn Mathews’ major league debut into a much better story. Instead, St. Louis managed just one run and fell to the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-1, dropping the first two games of the weekend series.

This was not a case of the Cardinals being completely shut down.

That would have been easier to explain.

They had traffic. They had opportunities. They had enough baserunners to make Kevin Gausman uncomfortable. They just did not turn enough of those chances into runs.

That has been the theme too often lately.

The Cardinals had 11 hits and scored once.

That is a hard way to win a baseball game.

Mathews opened his major league career with a scoreless first inning, working around a one-out fielder’s choice and striking out Kazuma Okamoto for the first strikeout of his big-league career. It was not perfect, but it was controlled. He attacked the zone, showed some poise, and gave the Cardinals something to build from early.

The Blue Jays pushed him in the second, but Mathews escaped again. Alejandro Kirk walked to start the inning, but Daulton Varsho struck out, Ernie Clement fouled out, and Myles Straw flied out to center.

Two innings in, no runs allowed.

That was a good start.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, were getting to Gausman but not finishing innings.

Alec Burleson singled in the first. Nathan Church singled in the second. Jimmy Crooks, Jordan Walker and Burleson all reached in the third, but the Cardinals came away empty each time.

The third inning was especially frustrating. Crooks opened with a single to right, but JJ Wetherholt grounded into a double play. Walker followed with a single, Burleson added another hit, and Iván Herrera grounded out to end the threat.

That was the kind of inning that told the story of the day.

Plenty of movement.

No damage.

Toronto finally broke through in the bottom of the third. Davis Schneider drew a leadoff walk, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled with one out, and after Okamoto flied out, George Springer lined a single to left-center field. Schneider scored, Guerrero moved to third, and Springer took second on the play.

The Blue Jays led 1-0.

Mathews then walked Kirk to load the bases, but he got Varsho to foul out to Jimmy Crooks behind the plate to limit the damage.

That mattered.

A young pitcher making his debut could have let the inning get away. Mathews did not. He bent, but he did not break.

Toronto added another run in the fourth. Clement singled to center, Straw doubled to deep right, and Urías lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to score Clement. The Blue Jays had a 2-0 lead, but again, Mathews limited the inning to one run.

That was the best part of his debut.

It was not clean. It was not dominant. It was not the kind of outing that will make anyone pretend he is a finished product.

But he competed.

Mathews worked five innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He walked three, struck out three, threw 97 pitches, and left the game with the Cardinals still very much alive.

For a major league debut on the road, against a lineup with real power and experience, that is a respectable first step.

Now the Cardinals needed to hit.

They finally did in the sixth.

Herrera led off with a double to left-center field. Lars Nootbaar grounded out to the catcher, moving Herrera to third, and Masyn Winn followed with a double to deep right-center. Herrera scored, and the Cardinals cut the deficit to 2-1.

That should have been the inning where St. Louis put real pressure on Toronto.

Instead, it stopped there.

Church grounded out, moving Winn to third, and Braydon Fisher came in to relieve Gausman. Blaze Jordan worked the count but grounded out to third to end the inning.

The Cardinals had pulled within one, but they had also left another runner sitting 90 feet away.

That mattered.

Luis Gastelum took over for Mathews in the sixth and worked around a bunt single by Varsho, keeping the game at 2-1. The Cardinals then had another chance in the seventh after Walker singled and Burleson walked, but Herrera grounded out to shortstop.

Again, runners on.

Again, no finish.

Toronto finally created separation in the bottom of the seventh.

Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and Guerrero followed with an infield single. Okamoto popped out, but Springer came through again, driving a double to deep right field. Giménez scored, Guerrero moved to third, and Toronto led 3-1.

That brought Peter Strzelecki into the game, and Kirk greeted him with the swing that broke it open. Kirk singled to deep right, scoring Springer and Guerrero to push the Blue Jays’ lead to 5-1.

In a game where the Cardinals were struggling to cash in, that four-run gap felt much larger.

St. Louis had spent the afternoon missing chances.

Toronto did not.

That was the difference.

Walker and Burleson both had multi-hit days. Herrera doubled and scored the only Cardinals run. Winn drove him in with his 14th double of the season. Church, Jordan and Crooks all added hits.

There were good at-bats scattered across the lineup.

But scattered is the key word.

The Cardinals did not string enough of them together. They did not create the one big inning they needed. They did not take advantage of Gausman allowing nine hits before leaving in the sixth.

Gausman gave Toronto 5.2 innings, allowing one run, and the Blue Jays’ bullpen handled the rest. Fisher, Mason Fluharty and the late-inning arms kept St. Louis from getting the game back within reach.

For the Cardinals, this loss felt familiar.

Friday night, they dropped the opener, 3-1, in a game where Kyle Leahy pitched well and the offense could not do enough. Saturday, Mathews made his debut and kept the Cardinals close, but once again, the lineup could not turn traffic into runs.

That is not a winning formula.

The Cardinals are now in a stretch where every loss carries more weight. The trade deadline is closing in. The standings are tightening. The front office has to decide what this club is and what it should be over the final two months.

Games like this make the argument harder.

Not because Mathews failed.

He did not.

If anything, Mathews gave the Cardinals something worth watching. He showed poise, handled traffic, worked through early nerves, and left with his club trailing only 2-1.

That should have been enough to keep the game in reach.

The offense just did not do its part.

The Cardinals had hits.

They did not have enough runs.

Toronto took advantage when its chances arrived. St. Louis did not.

And that was the ballgame.

The Bottom Line
Quinn Mathews gave the Cardinals a chance in his major league debut.

The offense, the same old story, did not give him enough help.

St. Louis had 11 hits but scored only once, wasting too many opportunities in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Mathews’ debut was worth watching.

The rest of the afternoon was more of the same.

Cardinals lose, 5-1.

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