Monday night’s game was another rough game for the St. Louis Cardinals, as they fell 4-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies. They had stranded 11 total base-runners, and struck out eight times, as Cole Hamels got his first win of the season, and John Lackey getting his first loss of the season.
Tuesday night’s game, however, went very differently, and in the case of St. Louis, more positively.
For the Cardinals, Michael Wacha (3-0, 1.33 ERA), who was one of the best records and stat-lines in baseball currently, took on top prospect for the Phillies Severino Gonzalez.
After allowing an infield hit to Ben Revere to start the game, Wacha would shut down Odubel Herrera, Jeff Francoeur, and Chase Utley in order. In the bottom of the first, Jon Jay, who was put in the lead-off spot, would ground-out.
But then the three Matt’s would do their damage…
First, Matt Carpenter hit a triple off the right field wall. Then, Matt Holliday doubled home Carpenter to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead early. Next came Matt Adams, who singled home Holliday, and while that would be the only runs scored in the inning, it gave them an early 2-0 lead.
Wacha pitched a 1-2-3 top of the second, which included a strikeout of St. Louis native Ryan Howard, which was his 20th of the season.
Jason Heyward led off the bottom of the second with a base hit, and Yadier Molina followed that with a walk, and with nobody out, Kolten Wong hit a bloop hit that dropped in between center field and shortstop. Wacha then bunted Molina home on a sacrifice, to make it 3-0, and a two-out single by Jay which scored Wong made it 4-0, as the Cardinals continued to pile on the runs early.
The third inning started with a base hit by Freddy Galvis, followed by a ground-out by Gonzalez. Wacha would get Revere to ground-out as well. With two outs and Galvis on third base, Herrera hit an RBI-double of his own, to put Philadelphia on the board, but they still trailed the Cardinals 4-1. A base hit by Utley would score Galvis and cut the Cardinals’ lead to 4-2. Wacha would get out of the inning allowing just those two runs.
St. Louis would respond in the bottom of the third with base hits by Holliday and Adams. A fly-out sacrifice fly by Peralta would score Holliday and advance Adams to third. Heyward walked, bringing up Molina once again, who also hit a sacrifice fly, this time to score Adams to increase the lead to 6-2 Cardinals.
The bottom of the third continued as Wong hit his second bloop single. Runners were at the corner for Wacha, who took advantage by hitting a single in center (for his first hit of the year), scoring Heyward, and giving the Cardinals a 7-2 lead. That was the final nail in the coffin for Gonzalez and his debut. Phillies manager Ryan Sandberg would make a double switch, bringing in Grady Sizemore to play in right field, and Dustin McGowan in relief for Gonzalez.
Wacha continued to shut Philadelphia down, bouncing back from a rough third inning to pitch a 1-2-3 fourth inning, notching his third strikeout in the process.
In the top of the fifth, the Phillies would tack on two more runs to make it 7-4 heading into the bottom half of the fifth inning.
Heyward led-off the bottom of the fifth with a walk, as Jake Diekman pitched for McGowan. He would advance to second after a Molina ground-out. Wong grounded out once again, but Diekman wound up walking Wacha. Jay then hit a ground ball towards Galvis, who had to make a diving stop, but could not get the out, as Heyward scored to make it 8-4. Carpenter followed with a ground-rule double to left-center, scoring Wong to make it 9-4 Cardinals.
Manager Mike Matheny took out Wacha with two outs and two on in the top of the sixth. He finished the game pitching 5.2 innings, allowing four runs (earned runs), six hits, walked two and struck out four. Randy Choate entered the game, and struck out Sizemore on three pitches.
Choate, after allowing a double (that ended up being ruled a throwing error by Peralta), followed by recording another strikeout, and Holliday catching a fly ball for out number two. Howard then grounded out to end the inning.
It was the first time Choate pitched 1 1/3 innings consecutively in over 100 innings with the Cardinals.
During the bottom of the seventh, Justin De Fratus entered to pitch in relief for the Phillies, and had a strong half inning of relief work.
Mitch Harris then took the place of Choate to start the eighth inning for St. Louis, and would not allow a run, continuing his hot streak. The bottom of the eighth started with a single by Carpenter, and one by Holliday, who would be taken out in favor of the speedy Peter Bourjos on the bases. Bourjos would immediately steal second after the first pitch thrown to Adams.
Adams would hit a sacrifice fly to score Carpenter, giving the Cardinals a 10-5 lead. The inning would continue, with the help of poor fielding by the Phillies. Molina fired a shot into right field, making it an 11-5 game, which, after a solid closing ninth inning by Carlos Villanueva, would be the final score, as the Cardinals’ two game losing streak ended.
Wacha now is 4-0 on the season, and the Cardinals are 13-6, while setting season highs in runs scored (13) and hits (15).
(AP Photo/Billy Hurst)
