The St. Louis Cardinals first game after the All-Star break was encouraging as they won a tight back-and-forth game Friday night in Arizona. The word for their Saturday afternoon game against the Diamondbacks would be “concerning” as the Cardinals played flat uninspired baseball for the first half of the game and Dustin May was not sharp. Former Cardinal Nolan Arenado would play a major role in Saturday’s outcome, too. The Cardinals would eventually attempt a rally, but it would be too little, too late.
The St. Louis Cardinals offense seemed to be rolling over Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaat sinkers for the first few innings weakly grounding out and not mounting any kind of real threat for the first half of the game. Arizona, on the other hand, were scored nearly every inning for the first few innings of the game starting in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Moreno singled followed two batters later by Nolan Arenado singling. Gabriel Moreno then connected on a two-out single scoring Moreno giving the Diamondbacks an early 1-0 lead.
Arizona continued to chip away at Dustin May pitches in the bottom of the 3rd inning as Marte led off with a single. May then walked Perdomo before getting Corbin Carroll to ground into a double play moving Marte up to third. Dustin would then throw a wild pitch that could have been ruled a passed ball on Pedro Pagés allowing Marte to score giving Arizona a 2-0 lead. Moreno would follow up that with a single followed by a Dustin May walk to Kepler. Nolan Arenado would make the Cardinals pay for their sloppy play as he ripped a double into the left field corner scoring both runners and doubling the Diamondbacks lead to 4-0 through 3 innings.
Through the first 4 innings, the St. Louis Cardinals only had 2 hits while Arizona kept adding to their lead. In the bottom of the 5th inning, Ryan Waldschmidt crushed a 97 mph Dustin May four-seam fastball to centerfield for a double. Ketel Marte singled in Waldschmidt making it 5-0 Arizona through 4 innings.
Dustin May would leave the game after finishing 5 innings allowing 8 hits, 5 earned runs while striking out 6 and walking 4. This is not the outing Dustin May wanted I’m sure and the same can be said for President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom who will likely listen to offers for May around the upcoming trade deadline.
St. Louis would FINALLY get their bats off of their shoulders and string together some hits in the top of the 6th inning. JJ Wetherholt smacked a single up the middle to lead off the Cardinals 6th. After Herrera popped out, Alec Burleson singled giving the Cardinals a runner in scoring position for the first time Saturday. Jordan Walker avoided bad swing decisions of the past showing how far he’s come as he patiently connected on a single up the middle scoring JJ and giving the Cardinals some life making it 5-1 Diamondbacks. Lars Nootbaar followed up Walker’s single with one of his own to load the bases for St. Louis bringing up Masyn Winn as the potential tying run. All Masyn could manage was a weak groundout to short, but he avoided the double play which allowed Burleson to score and cutting into the Arizona lead a little more as the Cardinals drew closer at 5-2. That’s unfortunately all St. Louis could manage to score from that rally as Nathan Church popped out with runners on 2nd and 3rd to end the inning.
The Cardinals would threaten again in the top of the 7th inning when José Fermín drew a walk. Bryan Torres then lined out to center before JJ Wetherholt hit an excuse me single off the end of the bat past Nolan Arenado at 3rd for his second hit of the game. Iván Herrera was unable to drive them in as he struck out and the scoring opportunity would unfortunately amount to nothing as Alec Burleson lined out to right field for the final out of the St. Louis 7th.
The Cardinals last hurrah would be in the top of the 9th as José Fermín led off the inning against Diamondbacks reliever Sewald. He struck out after the ABS challenge proved his demise. Oli Marmol sent up Jimmy Crooks as a pinch-hitter and he destroyed a 91 mph four-seam fastball launching it 443 feet deep into the right-center field stands reducing the Diamondbacks lead to 5-3. JJ Wetherholt struck out after the Crooks blast which left Iván Herrera as the last hope of St. Louis. His lineout to Corbin Carroll in right ended the game for the Cardinals.
The St. Louis Cardinals will wrap up their stay in the desert Sunday afternoon as they play a matinee game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Andre Pallante gets his first post-All Star break start for the Cardinals while the Diamondbacks will send Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound. First pitch is set for 3:10pm central time at Chase Park while the TV broadcast will be available through Cardinals.tv.