After defeating the Minnesota Twins on Monday night 3-2, the St. Louis Cardinals entered Tuesday afternoon’s matchup with not only a game on the field…but an alleged hacking incident off the field that made headlines early Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday morning, the New York Times reported that employees from the Cardinals organization had hacked into the database of the Houston Astros to take data regarding player personnel.
While the investigation was ongoing, however, the game went on.
And St. Louis, despite two rain delays, were backed by another great pitching performance as well as timely hitting, and won their fifth straight game.
The pitching matchup for the game featured Michael Wacha (8-2, 2.45) on the mound for St. Louis, and Kyle Gibson (4-4, 3.24) for the Twins.
In the top of the first inning, Brian Dozier led off the game with a single to left field. After Wacha got two consecutive outs of Torii Hunter and Joe Mauer, Trevor Plouffo doubled to left field, scoring Dozier and giving the Twins an early 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless inning in the bottom of the first by Gibson, the Cardinals were able to get on the board in the bottom of the second. With the score still 1-0 Twins, Yadier Molina, who hit his first home run the night before, hit a ground rule double to right field. A groundout by Jason Heyward sent Molina to third.
Randal Grichuk then hit a sacrifice fly scoring Molina, making it a tie 1-1 game.
Wacha kept the game tied with a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third. Meanwhile, the Cardinals added to their score to take the lead in the bottom of the third. After a groundout by Wacha, Kolten Wong hit a one out double. Matt Carpenter then walked, and a groundout by Jhonny Peralta advanced the two runners.
First baseman Mark Reynolds came up to bat next with two outs, and hit a single to left center field scoring both Wong and Carpenter, giving the Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning.
For the next three innings, it became a pitcher’s duel between Gibson and Wacha, and neither looked to budge anytime soon. The Twins’ biggest inning came at the top of the seventh. It started with a walk to Plouffe, and a fielder’s choice by Eduardo Nunez. Nunez then stole second base with one out.
Afterwards, Seth Maness entered the game to relieve Wacha. His final line of the evening: 6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K.
Kurt Suzuki doubled off of Maness, scoring Nunez, making it a 3-2 game, with the Twins still trailing. But Maness was able to bounce back, as Eddie Rosario fouled out to third base, and Kennys Vargas grounded out to second base, to end the inning.
The Cardinals used Matt Belisle and Randy Choate to get to the ninth inning, where Kevin Siegrist, taking the closer role over for Trevor Rosenthal while he is experiencing bicep issues, faced the top of the Twins lineup.
And with another successful save attempt, the Cardinals won 3-2 for the third straight game, improved to 43-21, and Wacha won his ninth game of the season. With the loss, the Twins drop to 34-30, but remain in second in the American League Central.
These two teams continue to face off, as tomorrow, the Cardinals head to Minnesota, where Carlos Martinez will get the start on the mound.
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
