The St. Louis Cardinals entered Sunday night’s match-up against the Detroit Tigers as the Cardinals were looking to avoid a sweep from the Tigers. On Saturday, despite tying the game on two separate occasions, poor base-running played a critical factor in the Cardinals falling 4-3 in 10 innings.
And on a beautiful Sunday night at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals bounced back from the struggles that were present before, and won 2-1 against Detroit.
For the Cardinals, Lance Lynn (2-3, 3.27), took the mound, while for the Tigers, Alfredo Simon (4-1, 3.05) got the start.
In the top of the first inning, Ian Kinsler scored after Miguel Cabrera, who has had an unbelievable series, hitting both his 399th and 400th career home runs over a span of two days, hit a double that put the Tigers ahead 1-0. That score would remain the same until the bottom half of the third inning, when Cardinals center-fielder Peter Bourjos hit a lead-off triple. Then, Lynn, who entered the game 2-for-15 at the plate hit a single down the right field line, scoring Bourjos and tying the game at 1-1.
The Detroit Tigers, who had seemed to have total control of the series during the past two games, were held in check quite well by Lynn, whose final line was: 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO. Sunday night’s performance was one of Lynn’s best during the 2015 season thus far.
As for the Tigers, Simon also had a good performance as well, with his final line being: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 SO.
That second run allowed by Simon came in the bottom of the sixth inning. After catcher Yadier Molina lined out to left field, second baseman Kolten Wong hit a line drive home run deep to center-field to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 lead. It turned out to be the last run scored in the game for both teams, and not only was it Wong’s fifth home run of the season, it was his 150th career hit as well.
St. Louis had out-hit the Tigers 10-7, with both Molina and Matt Carpenter garnering two hits each, while Lynn, Bourjos, Wong, Mark Reynolds, Matt Holliday (who extended his on-base streak), and Jhonny Peralta had one hit each.
And it wasn’t just Lynn who had a strong pitching performance. In the top of the eighth, with Kinsler on second and Cabrera on first following back-to-back walks, Seth Maness was brought in, with one out already. J.D. Martinez stepped up to bat, hitting into a double play to end the inning.
It only took Maness one pitch to get the double play.
Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal entered in the ninth inning, and shut down the Tigers, and sealed the win for St. Louis while he got his 13th save of the season. The Cardinals are now 25-12 this season while the Tigers are now 23-15, and one game behind the first place in the Kansas City Royals, who will later face St. Louis during inter-league play.
Tomorrow, in game one of a three game series against the Mets, John Lackey will get the start.
