Despite tying twice, mistakes cost Cardinals

On a rainy Saturday at Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals looked to rebound in the second game of a three game series after Friday night’s 10-4 throbbing at the hands of the Detroit Tigers.

And while the game wasn’t as bad…a loss is still a loss.

Tyler Lyons (0-0, 4.82) started for the Cardinals, while former Rays pitcher David Price (3-1, 3.30) started for the Tigers.

In the top of the first inning, Miguel Cabrera, who hit his 399th career home run on Friday night, would hit his 400th career home run into deep center field, which now places him with the most career HR by a Venezuelan-born player Andrés Galarraga. Heading into the bottom of the first inning, with Detroit leading 1-0, Randal Grichuk made his first at-bat of the season, but before it could conclude, an hour and twenty minute rain delay arrived.

After the rain delay with one out, Matt Carpenter took a one-out pitch by Price deep for his seventh home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1.

The game remained tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the second inning when center fielder Peter Bourjos cranked a home run to left field for his first home run of the season to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead, their first lead of the enter series.

But it wouldn’t last for long, as during the third inning, after a Rajai Davis triple, Ian Kinsler tied the game at 2-2 with a double. Yoenis Céspedes then singled to left, scoring Kinsler and giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead. While Price was rolling, Carlos Villanueva entered the game in the bottom of the fourth to relieve Lyons.

The final line of the afternoon for Lyons: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.

As for Price, he continued to shut down the bats of the St. Louis Cardinals, who at one point not too far back had a strong surge, but have struggled since facing Corey Kluber at Cleveland.

And then Jhonny Peralta stepped to the plate and hit a home run of his own to tie the game once again, this time at 3-3.

With Price continuing to roll, the Cardinals bullpen did their job as well. So much so that the game would wind up going to extra innings with the game still tied at 3-3. But Jose Iglesias hit what turned out to be the game-winning single in the tenth inning, and the base-running mistakes made by players such as Jason Heyward and Matt Holliday came back to bite the Cardinals as they lost 4-3 in extra innings.

This drops the Cardinals to 24-11.

Tomorrow, Lance Lynn will get the start and try to prevent the sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers.