Leake Continues AT&T Dominance, Cards Break Out in Ninth to Top Giants 3-2
For eight innings, last night’s game had the same feel as many other frustrating Cardinal’s losses this year. Mike Leake was strong, much like his previous starts at AT&T park, but the offense looked to be a no show like it has been so often of late. But, with one out in the top half of the ninth, Jedd Gyorko got things going for the Red Bird offense.
In his previous nine appearances at AT&T, Leake was 6-1 with a 3.07 ERA. A trend of good pitching that he continued on Saturday night, only giving up two runs over 6 innings on a sac fly in the second and a double in the fifth. Leake struck only struck out three, but he did a good job keeping the ball down for the most part, giving the Cards a much needed solid outing.
The offense, on the other hand, struggled again for nearly the entire game. Aside from Moss’ solo shot, in the top of the first, the birds only mustered four hits through eight innings. Fortunately for them, Bruce Bochy did not stick with Derek Law in the ninth, after a two up, two down eighth. Instead, the Giants skipper went with his former closer, Sergio Romo, to start the ninth. Romo came in and got Stephen Piscotty to pop out to begin the ninth. Then, Jedd Gyorko stepped into the box. Romo surrendered a one out hit to Gyorko into to left field, and Bochy had seen enough. Santiago Casilla was brought in to replace Romo, in hopes of closing things down for San Francisco, something he has struggled with this season, already having blown eight saves.
With one out and Tommy Pham pinch running on first, Yadier Molina came to the plate. Yadi got behind Casilla 1-2, and that is when Pham took off for second. Pham slid into second safely on a ball to Molina, a play that may go overlooked, though it was huge at the time. Molina then drew a walk, and was lifted for pinch runner Jose Martinez. Casilla then went to a two strike count on yet another Cardinal batter in Randal Grichuk, and again lost him. Grichuk, who had hit into two 6-4-3 double plays already, bounced a ball through the middle of the infield and into center field, scoring Pham from second and tying the game at two, but they were not done yet.
Just as importantly as Pham scoring on the Grichuk’s single, Martinez went from first to third with just one out. This allowed him to score when Kolten Wong lined out to center for the second out, putting the Cards up 3-2. With two outs, Matheny elected to stick with his closer, Oh, who struck out swiniging after Grichuk stole second and went to third on an errant throw by the cather, Buster Posey.
In the bottom half of the ninth, Oh came out for his second inning of work. Though he gave up back-to-back two out singles, the Korean closer got pinch hitter Conor Gillipse to pop out to second, ending the game in a 3-2 St. Louis victory.
The Cardinals will face the Giants this afternoon at 3:05 CT in the series finale. It will be two rookies, Alex Reyes for St. Louis and Albert Suarez for San Francisco, facing off in the two teams final regular season matchup. Though, not mathematically a must-win game for the Cardinals, every game is so important at this point in the season.
