Pallante, Winn, Pereira Help Cardinals Blank Phillies, 2-0

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Pallante, Winn, Pereira Help Cardinals Blank Phillies, 2-0
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

One night after letting a late rally fall just short against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cardinals came back Tuesday night at Busch Stadium with the kind of win that still plays in August.

Pitching.

Defense.

One timely swing.

One insurance blast.

And Riley O’Brien at the end.

Pallante gave St. Louis six scoreless innings, Masyn Winn delivered the first run of the game with a seventh-inning single, Everson Pereira added a solo home run in the eighth, and O’Brien finished it for his 30th save as the Cardinals blanked the Phillies, 2-0, to even the series.

This was not a big offensive night for the Cardinals, it wasn't supposed to be.

Not with Cristopher Sánchez on the mound for Philadelphia and Pallante answering him pitch for pitch on the other side. For six innings, this was a scoreless grind. The Phillies had chances. The Cardinals had chances. Neither team could finish one.

Then the Cardinals finally did, when Jordan Walker drew a walk to open the bottom of the seventh inning and immediately changed the inning with his legs, stealing second base. Alec Burleson struck out, and José Fermín grounded out, moving Walker to third.

That brought Winn to the plate.

Winn lined a single to right field, scoring Walker and giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. In a game where runs were almost impossible to find, that swing felt bigger than one run.

It was.

The Cardinals added one more an inning later, and the pitching staff made sure Philadelphia never answered.

That was the difference.

Pallante set the tone from the start, even if the early innings were not easy. Kyle Schwarber singled to open the game, and Bryce Harper walked with one out. That gave Philadelphia two runners aboard in the first inning and an immediate chance to put pressure on the Cardinals.

Pallante got out of it.

The Phillies threatened again in the second. Bryson Stott singled, Alec Bohm singled, and Philadelphia had runners on the corners with one out. But the Cardinals turned the ball in play into the kind of outs that win close games, keeping the Phillies off the board and allowing Pallante to settle back in.

That became the story of his night.

Pallante was not overpowering in the strikeout column. He finished with two strikeouts. But he competed through traffic, got contact when he needed it and leaned on the defense behind him. He worked six shutout innings, allowing four hits and three walks while throwing 97 pitches.

It was not a perfect line.

It was a winning line.

Against a Phillies lineup with Schwarber, Harper, Trea Turner, Luis Arraez and J.T. Realmuto, that matters.

Pallante did not let the game speed up. He worked around runners. He kept the ball in the yard. He kept the Cardinals even long enough for the offense to find one run.

On Tuesday night, one run felt like a mountain.

That was because Sánchez was just as good.

The Phillies left-hander kept St. Louis quiet for six innings, allowing four hits, walking none and striking out seven. He commanded the strike zone, kept the Cardinals from building sustained rallies and made every scoring chance feel like it had to be cashed in immediately.

The Cardinals did not do that early.

In the second inning, Fermín singled and Winn followed with another single, putting St. Louis in business. But Blaze Jordan grounded into a double play, and the inning went nowhere.

In the third, Pedro Pagés singled, but JJ Wetherholt grounded into another double play.

In the fourth, Burleson singled, but Sánchez again worked through the inning.

That was the frustration.

The Cardinals were not completely overmatched, but they were not finishing innings. Sánchez kept making the pitch he needed, and for six innings, St. Louis could not find the hit that changed the scoreboard.

Neither could Philadelphia.

That is where Pallante deserves the credit.

He matched zeros with Sánchez, and that is not a small thing. The Cardinals did not need him to be flashy. They needed him to be steady. They needed innings. They needed a start that kept Philadelphia from building the kind of lead the Cardinals had to chase Monday night.

Pallante gave them exactly that.

When George Soriano took over in the seventh, the game was still scoreless and still sitting there for either club. Soriano struck out Realmuto looking. He struck out Stott looking. Brandon Marsh singled, and Bohm walked, bringing another dangerous moment.

Soriano got Justin Crawford to line out to right.

Still scoreless.

Still alive.

That gave the Cardinals the opening they needed in the bottom half, and Walker made sure the inning started with pressure. The walk mattered. The stolen base mattered. Fermín moving him over mattered. Winn finishing the sequence mattered most.

That was baseball the Cardinals have needed more often.

No home run.

No big inning.

Just execution.

Walker reached. Walker stole. Fermín moved him. Winn drove him in.

That was enough to break the game open on a night where “open” meant a 1-0 lead.

The eighth inning brought more stress.

Caleb Ferguson entered and made things uncomfortable, walking three batters without recording an out. In a one-run game against Philadelphia, that is playing with fire. Schwarber, Turner and Harper are not names a team wants circling the bases or standing in the batter’s box with the game on the line.

The Cardinals needed someone to stop the inning before it turned.

Ryne Stanek did.

Stanek entered and escaped the jam, needing only four pitches to keep Philadelphia off the scoreboard. In a game defined by narrow margins, that was one of the biggest moments of the night.

The Cardinals had grabbed the lead.

Stanek kept it.

Then Pereira gave the Cardinals the insurance run they needed.

With St. Louis still protecting a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the eighth, Pereira turned on a pitch from Tim Mayza and drove it out to center field for a solo home run. It was his fifth homer of the season and his first big swing in a Cardinals uniform.

That was not window dressing.

That was a game-changing run.

In a matchup where every base runner felt dangerous and every run felt enormous, Pereira’s home run changed the entire feel of the ninth inning. Instead of O’Brien trying to protect a one-run lead against the Phillies, the Cardinals had a two-run cushion.

Still not comfortable.

But different.

Pereira is new to St. Louis, but that swing gave Cardinals fans a quick introduction. The Cardinals claimed him because there is power and athleticism in the profile. Tuesday night, they got a look at both the upside and the immediate value.

One swing.

One run.

One little bit of breathing room.

The final three outs still belonged to O’Brien.

And once again, he handled them.

O’Brien closed the door in the ninth to earn his 30th save of the season, continuing what has become one of the most reliable stories on this roster. For a team that has lived on thin margins, his ability to finish games has been essential.

Thirty saves is not a small number.

It is production.

It is trust.

It is the difference between a narrow win and another frustrating missed opportunity.

The Cardinals have had plenty of moving parts this season. The rotation has shifted. The lineup has changed. Young players have arrived. Veterans have been moved. The club has spent too much time hovering around .500 and trying to find something that looks like momentum.

But O’Brien has been steady at the back end.

Tuesday night was another example.

Pallante gave the Cardinals six zeros.

Soriano protected the scoreless tie.

Stanek escaped the biggest jam of the night.

Pereira added the insurance run.

O’Brien finished it.

That is how a team wins a 2-0 game against a club it is trying to chase.

The final box will show Philadelphia with no runs on five hits. That is the number that matters most. The Phillies had traffic, especially early. They had walks. They had moments where one hit could have changed the entire night.

The Cardinals did not let them get it.

Philadelphia left eight men on base. St. Louis left only three. The Phillies had more chances, but the Cardinals executed the two that mattered most.

Winn’s single scored Walker.

Pereira’s homer made it 2-0.

That was the offense.

That was enough because the pitching staff made it enough.

For the Cardinals, the offensive line was not overwhelming. Winn had two hits and drove in the first run. Walker reached, stole second and scored the decisive run. Burleson had a hit. Fermín had a hit and helped move Walker to third in the seventh. Pagés had a hit. Pereira provided the insurance homer.

The Cardinals finished with six hits and two runs.

That was enough because the pitching staff made it enough.

That is not always a formula a team can live on, but it is absolutely a formula a team has to win with when it is available. In August, against a team like Philadelphia, style points do not matter. Clean wins matter. Series wins matter. Keeping the club in the Wild Card conversation matters.

Tuesday night gave the Cardinals one of those wins.

It also pulled them back to .500.

That number has followed this club around for too much of the season, but getting back there against Philadelphia after Monday’s 6-5 loss was important. The Cardinals could not afford to let the Phillies come into Busch Stadium and take the first two games of the series. They could not afford another night where a late push came up short. They needed to change the tone.

They did.

Pallante changed it first.

Winn changed it next.

Pereira added the insurance.

O’Brien finished it with save No. 30.

There are still concerns, of course. The offense did not exactly explode. The Cardinals again had to grind for every run. They left opportunities out there early against Sánchez. Ferguson’s eighth inning nearly turned into a disaster.

But this time, the Cardinals survived those issues.

That is the difference between Monday and Tuesday.

Monday, the mistakes and missed chances added up to a one-run loss. Tuesday, the Cardinals played cleaner, pitched better and found the swings that changed the game.

That matters.

This series is not just another series. The Phillies are one of the teams the Cardinals are trying to chase. Every head-to-head game carries added weight. Winning Tuesday does not fix the standings by itself, but it keeps St. Louis from losing ground in the wrong way and gives the Cardinals a chance to take the series.

That is all they could ask after Monday.

Now they have it.

For one night, the Cardinals got the start, the defense, the timely hit, the insurance homer and the closer at the end. That is a good baseball game. That is the kind of game that gives a team a chance to keep playing meaningful baseball.

Pallante gave the Cardinals six zeros.

Winn gave them the lead.

Pereira gave them breathing room.

O’Brien made it stand for his 30th save.

The Cardinals beat the Phillies, 2-0, and evened the series at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Riley O'Brien, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB