Every ace has their bad starts. Tuesday night was one of those bad starts.
Against the Tampa Bay Rays at Busch Stadium, Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright had one of his worst outings of the season, going only 4.2 innings, while allowing six runs (four earned runs), six hits, and four walks, as the Rays defeated the Cardinals 7-2 in a mainly one-sided game.
The game wasn’t all bad, however. Despite minimal production from the Cardinals’ offense, two players on the team hit solo home runs. Coincidentally, both have the same first name. In the bottom of the first, Matt Carpenter hit a lead-off home run (the fourth time in his career he has done that), to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Later in the game, Matt Holliday hit his eighth home run of the season, cutting the Rays’ lead to four.
But other than that, it was all Tampa Bay. In the 2nd inning, Rays pitcher and Illinois native Jake Ordozzi, in his first career at-bat, hit a very well executed sacrifice bunt to tie the game at one. From there, the Rays controlled the game.
In the fifth inning, Matt Joyce hit a double to left field, scoring two runs, one of the being Rays catcher Jose Molina, brother of the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina. With the bases loaded, Wainwright walked James Loney, making it 3-1 Rays.
And the inning was far from over.
Yunel Escobar then hit a ground rule double in right field, increasing the lead to 5-1. Molina would then add to the lead by a sacrifice, making it 6-1.
Wainwright was not able to make it out of the inning, with Mike Matheny eventually taking him out and putting in Seth Maness.
From that point on, the action was slow and lacking offense from either side, besides a homer from Holliday in the sixth, and an Evan Longoria home run off of Jason Motte in the ninth.
In the ninth inning, the Cardinals attempted to rally, with Oscar Taveras getting a base hit, and Carpenter a walk, as both had great at-bats at the plate, keeping closer Kirby Yates out on the mound, until finally getting the last out, ending the game.
The Cardinals struck out 13 times during the game, showing a frequent problem throughout the season: consistency at the plate. They did get as many hits as the Rays (with seven), but still struggled to produce runs, another problem throughout the season (they rank 29th in runs).
With the Brewers defeating the Reds, the Cardinals fall to 1.5 games back in the tight NL Central race, as their record drops to 54-46, still eight games over .500.
Tampa Bay, who has been on a hot streak since last playing the Cardinals, improve to 48-53, which is a drastic improvement as they were at one point 18 games under the .500 mark.
Wainwright’s record dropped to 12-5, as his ERA rose to 2.02, which is still one of the best in the majors.
For St. Louis, it’s a tough loss, but not a season-threatening or devastating one. They have gained a lot of ground on the first place Brewers, and a win Wednesday night could potentially put them at a half game back (if the Reds beat Milwaukee). Wainwright has bounced back from bad starts before, and there should be no reason to doubt that’ll happen again.
Lance Lynn will get the start Wednesday night.
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
