It was on Wednesday, May 13th, that the Cardinals looked to win their second straight against the Cleveland Indians. But with former Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber on the mound, that wasn’t to be. Kluber would strikeout a record 18 batters in a 2-0 victory, the most anyone has ever struck out against the Cardinals.
But Thursday was a new day, with Michael Wacha (5-0, 2.09) for the Cardinals, facing off against Trevor Bauer (2-1, 4.19) for the Indians.
And in the rubber game of a three-game series, it was St. Louis who emerged victorious in Cleveland with a 2-1 win, their first ever series win against the Indians during inter-league play.
After outs by Peter Bourjos and Matt Carpenter, designated hitter Matt Holliday, who exited the game on Wednesday after being hit in the elbow, would extend his on base streak to 32 straight games. Matt Adams then struck out to end the top half of the first inning.
Wacha started the bottom half of the first by first facing Jason Kipnis, who was hit twice with a pitch on Wednesday’s game. Kipnis hit a lead-off double after a long at-bat, bringing up Carlos Santana, who struck out, the first of the day for the young right-hander. Michael Brantley followed that strikeout with a walk, and Brandon Moss hit into an infield fly for the second out. Lonnie Chisenhall also struck out in the first, ending the first inning still scoreless.
Mark Reynolds led off the top of the second with a single, and with one out, Yadier Molina singled as well, to bring up Jason Heyward, who popped out, and Pete Kozma stepped up with two on and two outs. He popped out in foul territory to end the inning, as St. Louis stranded two runners.
After throwing well over 30 pitches in the first inning alone, Wacha settled down, and, despite allowing a one out triple to Michael Bourn, neither Jose Ramirez, who grounded into a bunt that led to Bourn being tagged out on his way to home plate, or Kipnis, who grounded out to Kozma, could score a run for Cleveland.
Bauer started the top of the third pitching a 1-2-3 inning, holding the Cardinals scoreless once again. Meanwhile, Wacha followed that with a 1-2-3 inning of his own, and, after three innings, it was still a scoreless tie in Cleveland.
Both pitchers settled down quite well through the middle innings, while both teams struggled to produce runs.
That changed in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Brantley hit a home run that sailed against the wind into right field, to put the Indians up 1-0. Mike Matheny soon after took Wacha out and brought in reliever Kevin Siegrist, who would pitch shutout baseball against the Indians, but it would still be 1-0 in favor of Cleveland entering the top of the eighth inning.
In the eighth, Bauer was removed from the game by manager Terry Francona, and former Cardinal reliever Marc Rzepczynski was brought in to face Carpenter, with Bourjos on base after a walk by Bauer.
And Carpenter, who had struggled all series long, made “Scrabble” pay by hitting a two-run home run to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead, and led to Francona making another bullpen move. In the bottom of the eighth inning for St. Louis, reliever Randy Choate entered the game in relief of Siegrist, and would get Brantley to ground out after three pitches. Seth Maness then entered the game as well, and allowed a base-runner to get on, but also got an out, as closer Trevor Rosenthal made an early appearance into the game for St. Louis.
Rosenthal got the Cardinals out of the eighth, and soon after closed out the game for the Cardinals, as they won 2-1. They improved to 24-10 while the Indians dropped to 12-21. Siegrist got the win for St. Louis, his second of the season.
The Cardinals now head home as Detroit comes to Busch Stadium to start a three game series against the Tigers. Carlos Martinez will get the start on Friday.
