The St. Louis Cardinals started a home-stand at Busch Stadium Thursday night, by facing off against their I-70 rivals, the Kansas City Royals. The two teams were making up a game that was rained out earlier in the season.
And in the final interleague game of the season, the Cardinals defeated the Royals 4-3 in a close finish.
For the evening, the starting pitchers were John Lackey (8-5, 2.90) for the Cardinals and Chris Young (8-5, 3.03) for the Royals.
Right away, in the first inning, Kansas City scored the first runs of the game. Mike Moustakas walked, and Eric Hosmer hit an infield single, bringing up Salvador Perez. Perez singled, scoring Moustakas to make it 1-0 Royals. Lorenzo Cain scored Hosmer during the next at-bat to make it a 2-0 lead in the first.
During the bottom of the second inning, the Cardinals were able to tie the game up. The inning started with a single by Jason Heyward. With Yadier Molina up, Heyward stole second base, putting himself in scoring position. Following Molina grounding out, Randal Grichuk stepped up to the plate, and hit a two-run home run, as the game was 2-2. It was Grichuk’s 10th home run of the season.
After Lackey threw a 1-2-3 top of the third inning, the Cardinals took the lead during the bottom of the third. Kolten Wong led off with a single, bringing up Matt Carpenter. And Carpenter, much like Grichuk the inning prior, hit his 10th home run of the season, a two-run shot to make it 4-2 Cardinals.
Afterwards, Lackey and Young both pitched very well for their respective teams, with the veteran Lackey having the edge.
When he was taken out in the eighth, Lackey’s final line of the game was: 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks. Randy Choate and Seth Maness entered during the eighth inning to pitch for the Cardinals, and kept the game at 4-2.
But the real drama came during the top of the ninth inning. Trevor Rosenthal entered the game. Alex Rios reached on an infield single. Omar Infante followed that with a triple that scored Rios to make it a one run game. Jarrod Dyson was walked on four straight pitches to put runners on the corners with no outs. But Rosenthal bounced back, striking out Louis Coleman, getting Alcides Escobar to ground into a fielder’s choice (Infante was thrown out at home) and getting Moustakas to ground out.
With the 4-3 win, Rosenthal notched his 30th save, becoming the first Cardinals closer with consecutive 30-save seasons since Jason Isringhausen (2004-07). Lackey improved to 9-5, while Young dropped to 8-6. Cardinals, meanwhile, are 61-34 as of Thursday, as the Royals drop to 57-37.
On Friday, the Cardinals start a three game series against the Atlanta Braves.
(Photo by Michael Thomas/Getty Images)
