Of all the key Yankees currently on the injured list, Max Fried has a chance to be the first one back. 

The left-hander took a significant step in making that happen Friday night when he started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — throwing 52 pitches across three innings while giving up two runs and no walks with three strikeouts — just over two months removed from landing on the IL with a left elbow bone bruise. 

If he recovers from Friday’s game without issue, Fried is expected to make at least one more rehab start Wednesday before the Yankees will discuss whether he is ready to rejoin the rotation, though he would not be fully built up at that point. 

“Obviously, tonight’s another important step for him,” manager Aaron Boone said before the Yankees fell to the Dodgers 2-1 to begin the season’s second half. 

Fried presumably would get to around 60 pitches in his next start, making it possible he could return to the big leagues after that on a pitch count around 70 and finish off his buildup from there. 

In the meantime, the Yankees will need to fill his rotation spot Tuesday against the Pirates, though Boone said they had not yet decided whether they would do so by calling up a fifth starter (à la Elmer Rodríguez) or throwing a bullpen game, like they did against the Rays before the All-Star break. 

The Yankees have already used three of Rodríguez’s five minor league options this season, so they need to be deliberate in when they use the final two the rest of the season. 

“It could be similar to what we did in Tampa with having the extra reliever, but we got to see how these handful of games unfold and then we’ll make a call as to what we need that second game against the Pirates,” Boone said. 

Fellow lefty Carlos Rodón (left elbow inflammation) threw about 10 pitches off the bullpen mound Friday as he continued his throwing progression after being shut down for about a week. 

Clarke Schmidt is set to face hitters in a simulated inning Saturday for the first time in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. 

“Itching, man,” Schmidt said Friday. “It’s been a little bit over a year now, just hit the year mark [July 11], so really excited to start somewhat getting close to competing.” 

Giancarlo Stanton (right calf strain) has started his running progression outside, Boone said, but remains without a timetable for a return. 

Boone said the Yankees were monitoring the air quality in The Bronx on Friday, due to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires, but it was clear for most of the game before getting slightly hazy in the late innings.

After a lovely vacation, many of us believe we will return to our jobs reinvigorated, with a fresh heart and a renewed passion for our professions.

Personally, I find the return to the office to be a definitive, draining reminder of how much I wish I never had to work another day in my life. How if I won the lottery or bought NVIDIA in my 401(k) account 6 years ago, I’d spend most of my days volunteering at an animal shelter (and DEFINITELY not adopt another animal) before going to watch the Mariners game at my local brewery. 

(Well. Maybe not that last part.)

It seems like the Mariners would agree with me, as they returned from the All-Star Break looking limp and lifeless, losing listlessly to the Giants 7-0.

Off the bat, it seemed like the San Francisco Season of Humiliation was bound to continue, as the Giants blew through their two ABS challenges just four outs into the game on poorly-advised challenges from left fielder Kasey Schmidt and catcher Andrew Kavanaugh.

Bryce Miller also started hot, touching 97 in the first inning and recorded four straight strikeouts in the first/second innings. He showed some Nestorocity on his strikeout of Rafiel Dever with a little hesi in his windup.

There were a few great almost-hits in the early part of the game for Seattle. Cal nuked one that was loud enough that I woke up my cats, but fell just foul, and Luke Raley hit one right to the top of the wall in center field, but it took until the bottom of the fourth for the Mariners to earn the first of their two hits for the night off the bat of Josh Naylor.

My cats had the right idea, as the first four innings of this game were capital-S Sleepy. Unfortunately, the wake-up call for this snoozer did not come from the bats of the Mariners. Miller left a splitter too far up in the zone to Bruce Elderidge, and he was punished for the mistake to the tune of a 2-run homer. 

The Mariners swiftly responded with some small-ball to manufacture some outs. After Raley hit a leadoff single, a poorly-executed sacrifice bunt by Robles saw him out at second. Robles soon followed suit, getting thrown out at second on a poorly-executed stolen base attempt. 

Miller saw his chance at a quality start slip away after he plunked Drew Gibert with one on and two out in the fifth inning. Miller ended with a José Ferrer walked Andrew Kavanaugh before Louis Arroz did what Arroz does best – use annoying bat-to-ball skills to ruin pitcher’s lives. 

A funky deflection off the glove of Ferrer saved the Mariners from another couple of runs, leaving the game at 3-0, but it didn’t take long for the Giants to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. 

Nick Davila brought shame upon our name in the seventh inning, loading the bases and allowing William Adams to hit a coffin-nail grand slam that put the game out of reach.

One of the few bright spots from this game was Cole Wilcox coming in for mop-up duty and absolutely cleaning up, hitting 98.2 on the gun and earning himself a couple of strikeouts. 

The Mariners put up almost no fight in this game whatsoever. At no point did it feel like the offense was on the verge of threatening the show signs of life. The defense had as many errors as the lineup had hits. The post-vacation sluggishness comes for us all, it seems.

Ah, well. At least it’s baseball.

SEATTLE — If a reset was what the Giants were looking for, they couldn’t have asked for more than the way they began the second half Friday against the Mariners.

Jung Hoo Lee led a parade of a dozen hits, Bryce Eldridge and Willy Adames provided the power and Landen Roupp mowed through seven shutout innings for a convincing 7-0 win.

“It looked like we’ve been playing the last four days,” quipped Eldridge, who opened the scoring with a two-run shot in the fifth. “In all seriousness, I think the break was good for us.”

For the sixth time this season, San Francisco won its third game in a row.

Now, for the real test of whether or not this is just a mirage: Can they extend it to four for the first time all year?

It’s hard not to like their chances if they can repeat performances like Friday’s.

“We played really well tonight, but we only get one win for it,” manager Tony Vitello said. “Tomorrow is a new battle. … The challenge is on for the coaching staff, too, but for the players to bring the attitude they brought today, of a 66-game season, make it a fresh start.”

Logan Webb gets the ball Saturday, and Roupp gave him a good starting point with his second straight stellar showing.

He walked three and only struck out two but didn’t yield a hit until the fourth, surrendering only two all game. He traded swings and misses for a boatload of weak contact and some solid defense behind him.

After allowing only one run in eight innings in his last start before the break, Roupp lowered his ERA to 3.98 after it had climbed to a season-worst 4.55 two starts ago.

“I think if you look at his whole body of work, he’s been great for us all year long,” Vitello said. “It’s just been a couple outings where the pitch count gets high on him because he’s not in the zone. Ironically tonight, one more walk than strikeout … but the rest of the time was just pounding the zone.”

Now two innings shy of his previous career high (106 ⅔), the Giants skipped Roupp’s last turn through the rotation before the break. The 11-day layoff seems to have only helped.

“Yes and no,” Roupp said. “I felt a little sluggish today, just with so many days off in between. … I don’t really like to take breaks. It kind of just messes with my momentum.”

For once, it was the Giants who benefited from some sloppy play, with Seattle committing a pair of errors that led to Lee widening the Giants’ lead to 3-0 in the sixth.

Lee reached on a fielder’s choice after Heliot Ramos singled to lead off the inning, but made it to second when shortstop Colt Emerson threw into foul ground trying to turn two.

He then scored when second baseman Cole Young couldn’t handle a ground ball off the bat of Arraez.

Playing a key role in it all: Catcher Drew Cavanaugh, who reached base all three times he came to the plate and used his body to obstruct Young’s path to the grounder while going to second.

Lee (3-for-4), Cavanaugh (2-for-2), Ramos (2-for-5) and Casey Schmitt (2-for-5) all contributed multiple hits.

Maybe the most encouraging sign came from Adames, who blew the game wide open with San Francisco’s eighth grand slam of the year. The struggling shortstop had been 0-for-3 when he came up with the bases loaded in the seventh.

He lined an 0-1 slider over the wall in right-center, going with the pitch, to widen the lead to 7-0.

“It can’t just be Willy and [Matt Chapman] and [Rafael] Devers,” Eldridge said. “But when those guys are at their best, we’ve shown what the offense is capable of. This team’s unstoppable. … I even thought during batting practice, [Adames] looked good, he looked fresh.”

The marine layer had kept a couple of deep drives in the ballpark, with Schmitt and Seattle’s Luke Raley sending fly ball outs to the center field wall, but Eldridge’s power was the first to prove impervious. Eldridge caught a splitter on the outside corner off the end of his bat but still gave it enough oomph to sneak it over the wall — and out of the reach of leaping center fielder Victor Robles.

Eldridge’s ninth home run of the season produced the first runs for either team, opening a 2-0 lead in favor of the Giants in the top of the fifth. That, it turned out, would have been enough.

What it means

It’s now been more than a week since the Giants’ last loss, the longest they have gone all season without the number in the loss column going up.

Who’s hot

Of all the Giants, Vitello believed few needed the All-Star break more than Lee.

It’s one reason why the skipper framed it as a positive when he had to break the news to the third-year outfielder that his breakout first half didn’t merit his first career All-Star selection.

Lee looked freshly rested while rattling off a pair of line drive singles in his first two at-bats. His only piece of contact that wasn’t hard-hit was a broken-bat single for his third hit of the night. He reached base for a fourth time when he was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Adames.

It was Lee’s 30th multihit effort of the season, trailing only Luis Arraez and Schmitt, but only his second since June 24. In 17 games before the break, Lee had been hitting .164 (10-for-61), with only one walk and three extra-base hits, resulting in a .404 OPS.

Who’s not

For a team looking for a fresh start in the second half, its biggest star didn’t get the message. 

The only Giant kept off the bases in the 12-hit performance was Devers, who struck out three times while going 0-for-5. Devers went down swinging on three pitches in his first at-bat, then swung through another fastball at the letters for strike three his next time up.

Devers briefly raised his OPS over .800 for the first time all season in the Giants’ last series before the break, but the hitless performance sent it back down to .789.

Up next

Fresh off a restful few days representing the Giants at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, Webb makes his first start of the second half against Seattle right-hander and Bay Area native Bryan Woo.

First pitch is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. PT, with Fox carrying the game nationally.

With 10 days since his last start, Webb will try to begin the second half on a better note than the way he went into the break, surrendering 12 runs over his final two starts.

The “Second Half” of the 2026 MLB season began tonight for the Athletics against the Washington Nationals at Sutter Health Park in West Sac. After finishing the first half on a nine-game losing streak, the team hopes to get off on the right foot against the Nats.

Gage Jump made the start for the A’s, his tenth of the season, against Cade Cavalli for the Nationals. Jump kept the Nationals bats at bay until the top of the third when a walk a single and two doubles, gave the Nats a 3-0 lead, all with 2 outs.

In the top of the fourth, harry Ford walked and Jacob Young hit a ground rule double, scoring Ford. That was it for Jump, who left after 3 2/3 innings having given up four earned runs on four hits and two walks.  He struck out eight Nationals. José Suarez entered the game and got the final out of the inning.

Jacob Wilson singled to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Tyler Soderstrom followed that with a 415 ft. homer to straight away center field.  That cut the Nats lead to 4-2.

The Nationals got those two runs back in the top of the fifth when Suarez gave up a monster two-run homer to Andrés Chaparro. That was all for Suarez, who was replaced by Justin Sterner with two outs. Harry Ford followed with his own 2-run homer to bring the score to 8-2.

With the score now 10-2, A’s reliever Yunior Tur made his Major League debut. Henry Bolte misplayed his second ball of the inning allowing two more runs to score. CJ Abrams hit a ball to deep centerfield that turned Bolte around and it fell for a double, scoring Chaparro for the 13^th run of the night. Abrams scored on a Daylen Liles single. Tur struck out two but not before the Nationals scored six runs in the inning.

After the A’s went quietly in their half of the sixth, The Nationals picked up where they left off in the previous inning, giving up an RBI double and a two-run homer to bring the score to 18-2 with no outs. It was this seventh inning that things got so out of hand that the A’s announcers turned to talking about what pro wrestler they would be if they could.  The conversation went downhill from there. Nuff said.

Brady Basso entered the game to pitch the eighth and tossed a 1-2-3 inning with two K’s. In the bottom of the eighth, Tommy White got his first major league hit, a double to center field. He was stranded at second when the inning ended.

Carlos Cortes moved from right field to pitch the ninth. He gave up five runs on four hits and a walk.  Headed to the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals led 23-2. Shea Langeliers greeted a position player on the mound for the Nats with a homer to deep left field. After two consecutive hits, the As scored one more.  The final score was 23-4, not the start of the second half the team or its loyal fans were hoping for.

The Cubs have officially signed the following draft picks:

1st round—RHP Cade Townsend

3rd round—RHP Carson Jasa

4th round—RHP Dylan Marionneaux

7th round—LHP Cole Tryba

10th round—RHP Luke Alwood

Catcher Owen Ayers was promoted from Double-A Knoxville to Triple-A Iowa.

Right-hander Jace Beck was also promoted to Iowa from Knoxville.

Right-hander Kevin Valdez was promoted to Knoxville from High-A South Bend

Catcher Miguel Useche also went from South Bend to Knoxville.

Smokies right-hander Yenrri Rojas was transferred to the development list.

Iowa Cubs right-hander Liam Hendricks, right-hander Kyle Wright, left-hander Aaron Bummer and catcher Eric Yang have all been released.

Right-hander Jake Woodford has elected to become a free agent.

If I missed anyone, I apologize. I know there are a lot of announcements on amateur free agents, but none of those have been made official yet.

Mesa won at least.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs were edged by the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 10-9.

Jaxon Wiggins started this game and ran into a lot of trouble in the third inning, giving up five runs. The final line on Wiggins was five runs on two hits and five walks over 2.2 innings. Wiggins struck out three.

Iowa fought back and took the lead with a four-run fourth and a two-run fifth, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. Corbin Martin ended up getting the loss after giving up a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. Martin’s final line was one run on three hits over 1.1 innings. The run was unearned, but it was his own throwing error that caused it to be unearned, so he has no one to blame but himself. Martin walked two, one intentionally, and struck out one.

Iowa had 12 hits and ten walks in this game, but all 12 of the hits were singles.

Center fielder Brett Bateman was 2 for 6 with three RBI and one run scored.

Third baseman Owen Miller was 2 for 5 with two RBI.

Second baseman James Triantos was 2 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.

DH Owen Ayers didn’t slow down in Triple-A. Ayers was 3 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base in his I-Cubs debut.

Nice defense from Bateman.

Bateman two-run single.

The title says it all.

Ayers’ third hit.

Martin took the loss in the ninth, but he got out of trouble in the eighth on this nifty double play.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies were burnt by the Montgomery Biscuits (Rays), 5-1.

Luis Martinez-Gomez was activated off the injured list and pitched the first four innings. Martinez-Gomez allowed one run on two hits, with one of those hits being a solo home run in the fourth. He walked two, hit one batter and struck out one.

Evan Taylor pitched the next two innings and got the loss after allowing one run on two hits. Taylor struck out one and walked no one.

The Smokies managed just three hits tonight. DH Andy Garriola was 1 for 2 with a sac fly. Right fielder Alex Ramírez went 1 for 4 with a double and he scored on the sac fly.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs were caged by the Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals), 9-3.

Starter Ethan Flanagan pitched 3.1 innings and surrendered two runs on two hits. The two hits were a triple and a home run though. Flanagan struck out five and walked no one.

Luis Rujano had a rough go of it and took the loss. Rujano got rocked for five runs on three hits and two walks over just one-third of an inning. He struck out one.

First baseman Josiah Hartshorn was 2 for 3 with a walk. He had an RBI single in the third inning and later scored in that frame.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans got blasted by the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox), 9-1.

Emilio Ramos started and got the loss after he was tagged for three runs on four hits over just two innings. Ramos walked three and struck out one.

Just four hits, all singles, for the Pelicans. Left fielder Ethan Conrad was 1 for 3 with a walk.

Alexis Hernández was also 1 for 3 with a walk. He scored once.

ACL Cubs

Beat the Reds, 11-6.

Second baseman Ezequiel Pena hit his first professional home run.

Yet again in a game between these two teams, the Dodgers were perfect when they needed to be, and yet again the Yankees were not. 

The difference in Friday’s series opener — the first time the pair matched up in The Bronx since a 2024 World Series that Aaron Boone’s group will forever regret — may have been a standout defensive play by the Dodgers and a base-running play by the Yankees that was not good enough. 

In a game the Dodgers were leading 2-1 — which would be the final score — Ben Rice clubbed a double off the wall in right-center in the eighth inning. With one out, Trent Grisham did not fully take off from first base until it was clear the ball was landing. 

It looked as if he slowed up a touch going from second to third, which Grisham denied. If he was surprised third base coach Luis Rojas waved him home — an aggressive send, if understandable considering the Yankees’ offensive struggles — he denied it. 

What he did acknowledge was being “conscious” of his hamstring, which he strained in June and caused him to miss three weeks into July. 

Regardless, Grisham said he “picked up” Rojas great, rounded third base and was beaten to the plate because the defense behind him was excellent.

Andy Pages, who boasts among the best outfield arms in the game, threw hard but inaccurately, forcing Mookie Betts to sprint from shallow center field toward where he began the play at shortstop. Betts caught the ball on the run and quickly relayed home while running toward third base.

Catcher Dalton Rushing backhanded up the first-base line and quickly moved his arm across his body and threw his glove down, hitting Grisham’s cleat as Grisham tried to sneak his foot across. 

“It was bang-bang,” said Grisham, but yet again, the Dodgers were just a little bit better. 

If Rojas held up Grisham, the Yankees would have had runners on second and third with one out and No. 3 hitter Paul Goldschmidt due up to face lefty Alex Vesia (although the Dodgers likely would have walked the lefty killer and set up Cody Bellinger with the bases loaded). 

“I thought Luis actually did a good job in reading the throw that it was going over the second baseman’s head, and Mookie was kind of on the run to have to go make the play,” Boone said, “and made a pretty good throw on the run. 

“So, don’t have an issue with taking the shot there.”

Game Summary

Full recap to follow shortly. Feel free to vent in the comments in the meantime!

Loss Probability and Box Score

Outside the Box Score

• Ketel Marte got credited with a tough error to start things rolling for the Cards in the first. At first, it looked like Ketel just got gobbled up and let an easy grounder roll through his feet. Upon reviewing replay, Merrill deflected the ball as it came up the middle and Ketel got a little crossed up.
• Gabi really helped Merrill out with the bases loaded and 1 out in the first by challenging a called Ball 4 and turning it into a Strike 3. Unfortunately, the Cardinals got an RBI single immediately following.
• Tim Tawa made an excellent diving catch on a sinking line drive into center field to end the first inning and keep the Cardinals lead at 2-0. 
• Bob made a sarcastic comment after the Cardinals made an out on the first pitch of the game that Merrill was on pace for a 27 pitch ballgame. In reality, it took him 27 more pitches just to get out of the first inning.
• Max Kepler dropped a surprise bunt for a base hit in the second to put runners at first and second with no outs and it was a beaut, perfectly parallel with the third baseline. 
• Kepler did another excellent job of situational hitting with Gabi at second and nobody out in the 4th when he yanked a grounder toward second, ensuring Gabi would make it to third with less than 2 outs. Lourdes undid that good deed by weakly grounding out to shortstop. Arenado made a good effort at shooting a single through the hole between short and third to score Gabi, but Masyn Winn made an excellent diving stop and throw (aided at least a little by the glacial foot speed of Arenado) to get the third out of the inning.
• Taylor Clarke was fairly unfortunate in that he got 2 groundballs with a runner at first in the 6th inning, but both were hit too slowly for the D-backs defense to turn a double play. Then Clarke gave up a a hard grounder that nearly snuck through the middle but Ketel made an elite diving play to keep the ball on the infield and shoveled it to Domo for the third out.
• Lourdes Gurriel was frozen watching a middle-middle fastball go by to strike him out and end the 6th inning. No one on so wasn’t a rally killer or anything, but a very disappointing pitch to let go by. Suppose that’s what happens when you’re slumping though, swing at pitches you shouldn’t and watch pitches you shouldn’t.
• I thought it was a mistake watching Ildemaro turn second and head to third on his triple in the 7th, but he kept chugging and the relay throw was nowhere close. Awesome hustle and happy I was wrong.
• Wild pitch by Morillo in the 8th led to a Cardinals run. Gabi got beat by a pitch in the dirt that just skidded along the ground instead of bouncing up, allowing runners to advance to second and third. Later in the at bat, the hitter hit a line drive to Kepler resulting in a run scoring sac fly.
• Corbin’s game tying homer was a line drive that was just above the fence and hit off the right field foul pole netting!
• Sewald’s night started to unravel right off the rip when he misplayed a grounder back up the box leading off the ninth. He stuck his glove out and was just under it, allowing the ball to deflect and die in the middle of the infield and resulting in an infield single. 

Comment of the Game

The GameDay Thread was well attended with a final tally of 312 comments at time of publishing. Not many Sedona Red comments, but Mike Mono earns tonight’s honor with the most recs for this:

Coming Up

The Diamondbacks face the Cardinals for the second game of this 3-game set tomorrow afternoon with a 1:10pm first pitch Arizona time. Right-hander Dustin May (5-6, 4.55 ERA) is listed as the probable starter for The Lou and Brandon Pfaadt (3-1, 4.70 ERA) will get the ball for the good guys.

Baseball is back. More importantly, the St. Louis Cardinals are back. After the excitement of the Home Run Derby was enough to last us until Friday, it was good to see the full team back in action. The layoff did not hurt the offense early in the first game of a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Cardinals took the lead in the first and, after a back and forth affair, scraped together their 51st win of the season.

Cardinals beat Diamondbacks 5-4

Ivan Herrera got things started against Merrill Kelly, reaching on a Ketel Marte error before moving up on an Alec Burleson single. Jordan Walker fell behind 0-2 in his first at-bat out of the break, but battled back and worked a walk to load the bases with one out. Lars Nootbaar took an ABS called third strike before Masyn Winn clutched up with a two-run single for an early lead. Michael McGreevy tossed a donut in the bottom of the first inning, retiring the side in order while flashing 94mph on the radar gun.

In the second, Jose Fermin looked to keep the lineup moving with a leadoff single but a foreshadowing pickoff took the wind out of the lineup. Kelly worked around a two-out walk to JJ Wetherholt before a nine-pitch at-bat ended in a strikeout of Herrera. When Arizona stepped to the plate in the bottom of the inning, it was almost immediate chaos. Catcher Gabriel Moreno tomahawked an 0-2 single then moved up on a bunt single from Max Kepler. With no outs, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s bunt attempt confused Jimmy Crooks behind the plate and the passed ball allowed a free 90 feet.

Gurriel made the mistake hurt right away, driving in Moreno with a long sac fly that allowed Kepler to move up to third. McGreevy kept his composure and was able to wiggle out of the inning with no further damage. He was able to get Nolan Arenado to strikeout with a runner in scoring position (shocker… JK Nolan) and completed his first Houdini Act with a harmless grounder to second.

The offense did nothing in the top of the third in support of McGreevy and the one-run lead disappeared quickly in the home half. Because why not, Tim Tawa hit a 381 foot homer on a 2-1 changeup to bring the score back even before getting the next three in order going into the middle innings. Another 1-2-3 inning for Kelly began the fourth and more wizardry by McGreevy and Winn was needed to keep the score tied.

Moreno hammered a double off the center field wall to begin the home half of the fourth and moved up to third with a groundout. Gurriel Jr. found himself up again just needing a sac fly, but this time he grounded out to third and Fermin kept Moreno stuck at third. Luckily for the Cardinals (sorry again Nolan), Arenado came up with a runner on third on the other team and Winn made an unreal play in the 5-6 hole and sent the game to the fifth.

With one-out in the fifth, the $112.5 million second baseman JJ Wetherholt put the Redbirds back on top with a 402 foot bomb to right field for his 14th homer of the year. The Cardinals were unable to do any further damage against Kelly, but the long at-bats caused his pitch count to hit 87 through five innings of work.

The Cardinals got their opportunity for some insurance against the Diamondbacks bullpen in the sixth inning, but Arizona got their revenge. Jordan Walker legged out an infield single and was limping after the play, but a force out got him off the bases quickly. Winn drew a walk and broke up a double play ball from Nathan Church to give the Cardinals runners on the corners and two outs. Jose Fermin smoked a grounder right up the middle, but Ketel Marte made up for his earlier error with a stellar sliding play to get the out at second and end the threat.

Defense continued to be the trend in the seventh inning. The D’Backs used a double play to end the top half and the bottom of the inning had the Cardinals on the ropes again. McGreevy got Arenado to strike out (again) for his fifth punchout of the game, but Ildemaro Vargas tripled to on the last pitch of McGreevy’s 6.1 inning quality start. Oli Marmol went to George Soriano in relief and Winn did his thing at short again. He made a nice backhand play on a grounder to keep the runner at third before Soriano’s Bugs Bunny changeup got Marte swinging to keep the score 3-2 going into the eighth.

In the eighth, the Cardinals finally got their insurance run but it turned out to be much more important than that. Alec Burleson led off the inning with a walk and moved up on a one-out Nootbaar single, putting Winn at the plate with the opportunity to cash in a big run. Winn did just that, smoking a sac fly to drive in Burly for his third RBI and gave the Cardinals a 4-2 and Luis Gastelum coming in for the bottom of the inning.

JoJo Romero recovering from an appendectomy led to Gastelum getting the call thanks to his own filthy changeup against lefties, but it was his offspeed offering that came back to bite him. An ABS walk started the inning and as leadoff walks tend to do, scored on a line drive Corbin Carroll homer off of the foul pole. No further damage was done but the Cardinals once again would have to fight back after blowing a lead.

Clutch performer Jose Fermin did his best to get things started in the ninth and he reached on a bobbled comebacker by Arizona closer Paul Sewald. Crooks followed up with a four pitch walk to bring the top of the order up with plenty of chances to do some damage. With two strikes, the unflappable rookie JJ Wetherholt lined a 101mph single to center, but it was hit so hard that Fermin had to hold at third, loading the bases with nobody out.

After chasing two nasty sliders out of the zone, Sewald went back to the pitch and hung it enough over the middle of the plate to allow Ivan Herrera to hit a sac fly to center and drive in the go-ahead run. D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo had seen enough from his closer at that point and likely wanted to save him for later in the series so he went to the bullpen again. Lefty Brandyn Garcia took on Burleson to start his outing and the pitcher won the matchup with a strikeout before getting Walker to groundout and keep the score 5-4 heading into the ninth.

All-Star Riley O’Brien took the mound in the ninth and was unable to move past the command issues he saw at the end of the first half. He issued a leadoff walk to Arenado and was not really close on any of his offerings. Despite his inability to find the zone, Vargas fouled off a bunt on the first pitch of his at-bat before Arizona committed their own TOOTBLAN that overshadowed Fermin from earlier. Pinch runner Jorge Barrosa was picked off, which is really the only thing a running specialist cannot do when trailing in the ninth. Vargas then hit a harmless flyout before O’Brien gave up a double to, again why not, Tim Tawa with two outs.

The pick off proved to be massive for the Cardinals as the lineup moved to Ketel Marte at the top of the order. With the tying run on second, O’Brien got ahead 0-2 of the dangerous switch-hitter before Marte laid off a couple pitches. With a 2-2 count, O’Brien was apparently close enough to the strike zone for a called third strike to end the game. Marte did not challenge the pitch and it appears he may have had a fair chance at another offering.

In the win, Luis Gastelum picked up his first major league victory and Michael McGreevy dropped his ERA to a stellar 2.91. The save was O’Brien’s 25th of the season and with the Brewers beating the Marlins, the Cardinals are now back in Wild Card position.

The series continues tomorrow with a 3:10 game and Dustin May on the mound.