The St. Louis Cardinals took on the Cleveland Indians Tuesday in their first inter-league series of the baseball season. After being off Monday, the Cardinals looked to rebound after losing two out of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the first series they lost all season.
But the big story entering the game was that third baseman Matt Carpenter, who spent the last three days out with what was diagnosed as “extreme fatigue”, made his awaited return to the lineup.
It was a pitching match-up between Lance Lynn (1-3, 3.82) for St. Louis, and Carlos Carrasco (4-2, 4.71).
The first inning started with a strikeout by Kolten Wong, a Carpenter ground out, and a Carrasco strikeout of Matt Holliday, for a 1-2-3 inning to start the game. For Lynn’s half of the inning, Jason Kipnis led off for the Indians, who grounded out to Wong. Carlos Santana followed with a single that barely bounced off the glove of first baseman Matt Adams. Next, after another single by the Indians, Brandon Moss, the team leader in home runs (with five), would be struck out by Lynn for his first of the game.
Nick Swisher, with two on and two out, also would strike out, as the Indians stranded two.
To lead off the second inning, Jhonny Peralta hit an infield single. Adams stepped up next, and struck out, the third of the day for Carrasco. Molina singled putting two on and one out with Jason Heyward at the plate, who advanced the runners on a pop-out. Designated hitter Mark Reynolds followed with a two out RBI, clearing the bases and giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Lynn would go back to work, first facing David Murphy, who hits a ball right to Lynn, who throws it to Adams for out number one. Lonnie Chisenhall then struck out (Lynn’s third of the game), and Roberto Perez grounded out to the left side of the infield to end the second inning.
Carrassco nearly pitched a 1-2-3 top of the third, shutting down Wong, and Carpenter, but Holliday reached on an error by Santana. Peralta followed with a pop-out to end the top half inning. Both Lynn and Carrassco pitched well during the third and fourth innings of the game, pitching scoreless baseball as the Cardinals maintained a 2-0 lead.
But that changed in the fifth inning. After back-to-back singles by Reynolds and Peter Bourjos, Holliday would hit a two out RBI single, scoring Reynolds and making it 3-0 Cardinals, which turned out to be the only run they’d score in the inning. Lynn returned to work on the mound in the bottom of the fifth, and after recording his sixth strikeout of the game, he would allow back-to-back walks. Eventually, the bases were loaded with only one out with Michael Brantley at the plate.
And after it looked like Lynn lost total control of his pitching, he bounced back with two straight strikeouts to get out of the jam.
With the score still 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Lynn, nearing 120 pitches, would (in his final batter he’d face) get his ninth strikeout on the evening. Meanwhile, veteran reliever Randy Choate was warming up in the bullpen for the Cardinals, as former Cardinal Marc Rzepczynski was warming up for the Indians in the bullpen. The top of the seventh (which was Carrassco’s last) featured a one out double from Carpenter deep to center field. It was his 15th of the season.
Holliday followed with a strikeout, the seventh of the evening for Carrassco, with Peralta at the plate with two outs. And despite two meetings on the mound in regards to how they would pitch to the right-hander, Peralta hit a double, scoring Carpenter and giving St. Louis a 4-0 lead. Indians manager Terry Francona, in a span of two batters, wound up making two pitching changes in the top of the seventh inning.
With two outs and runners on the corners, Molina came up to bat. Adams would steal second during the early part of the at-bat, but Molina grounded out ending the inning, but not before picking up another run.
Matt Belisle entered in relief for Lynn to start the bottom of the seventh. With Belisle on the mound, the Indians were able to get their first run of the game, and their second run would come once Randy Choate entered the game not too long after.
As for Lynn, his final line for the evening was: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R 0 ER, 4 BB, 9 K.
The seventh inning continued, this time with Kevin Siegrist, but once again, the Indians scored on an RBI double as the Cardinals 4-0 lead became a 4-3 lead. But Siegrist would get the next two batters out, as the game headed to the eighth, with the Cardinals clinging onto a 4-3 lead.
In the top of the eighth inning, with Heyward on first and one out, Bourjos would ground a ball right to the pitcher. However, the throw to Ramirez ended in an error when Ramirez dropped the ball, as runners would wind up on first and second base. Nick Hagadone would enter in relief to pitch for the Indians, with Wong up at the plate. Hagadone struck out Wong with a breaking ball, and Carpenter would step up to bat with two outs.
And he would make the Indians pay, with a base hit down the right field line, scoring Heyward, and putting Bourjos on third, as the Cardinals took a 5-3 lead. But they weren’t done. Holliday would then crush a pitch over the right field wall with two runners on, as the Cardinals suddenly had themselves an 8-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth.
Siegrist remained in the game to pitch the bottom half of the eighth inning, but after one out, Miguel Socolovich entered in relief, and pitched a shutout 2/3 inning. Socolovich pitched the bottom of the ninth inning as well, and would close out the 8-3 victory for the Cardinals, as they improved to 23-9 on the year, while the Indians dropped to 11-20.
Lynn would pick up the victory, which also turned out to be on the same day as his 28th birthday.
Wednesday night will feature John Lackey on the mound for the Cardinals.
