After sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in four games, the St. Louis Cardinals made their next stop on their National League West road trip by heading to San Francisco to face the Giants in the first game of a three game series.
With the Pirates winning and the Cubs losing earlier on Friday night, the National League Central was still in a tight race, as the Cardinals looked to maintain a four game lead in the division. However, it wasn’t meant to be in the end as the Giants walked off in the bottom of the ninth inning for the 5-4 victory.
The starters for the game were Michael Wacha (15-4, 2.80 ERA) Mike Leake (9-6, 3.44), in a battle between two of the National League’s top pitchers.
In the bottom of the third inning, Marlon Byrd hit his eighth career grand slam, to give the Giants a 4-0 lead.
But St. Louis was able to start making a comeback in the following inning.
It began when Matt Carpenter led off with a single, and later advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Tommy Pham walked next, to put two on and none out for Jhonny Peralta. Peralta hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out in the inning. After the fielder’s choice, Yadier Molina singled to score Carpenter and make it a 4-1 game. Two at-bats later, Stephen Piscotty hit a double that scored Peralta and Kolten Wong, who reached base earlier.
Suddenly it was just a one-run game.
Later, in the top of the sixth inning, Pham scored on a wild pitch thrown by Leake to tie the game up at 4-4.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Randy Choate entered the game in relief of Wacha, whose final line of the night was: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 Ks. After a single by Brandon Belt, Choate came out of the game, and Seth Maness was brought in, and induced another double play.
But in the bottom of the ninth, with the game still tied at 4-4, the Giants capped off the game with a walk off win. With Kevin Siegrist in to pitch, Belt led off the inning with a single. Buster Posey walked, and Byrd flied out. After Gregor Blanco walked, Kelby Tomlinson hit a single right past Siegrist to give the Giants the 5-4 win. With the loss, the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak got snapped.
On Saturday, Lance Lynn will get the start.
(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
