The St. Louis Cardinals began a four game series against the National League West’s Colorado Rockies on Thursday night. Colorado made a big trade earlier in the week by sending away star player, and fan favorite Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays for veteran Jose Reyes.
St. Louis also made a trade before Friday’s deadline, but it was met with more mixed reactions than anticipated. After putting Matt Holliday on the 15-day DL (he re-injured his right quad on Wednesday night), the Cardinals traded prospect pitcher Rob Kaminsky to the Cleveland Indians for OF/1B Brandon Moss.
With the addition of Moss, the Cardinals have a rotational 1B and OF that can fill the void while both Holliday and Matt Adams (who is out for the season) are injured. Currently, Moss leads the Cardinals in home runs (17) and RBI’s (50), although he also leads the team in strikeouts (106).
Greg Garcia was also called up to the main roster before the game, and Dan Johnson was designated for assignment.
And despite many miscues on the mound and out in the field during the game, St. Louis was able to walk-off in a dramatic ninth inning, by the score of 9-8.
The pitching match-up for Thursday’s game was Carlos Martinez (11-4, 2.34), going up against Chris Rusin (3-4, 4.13).
Charlie Blackmon led off the game for the Rockies with a single, but Yadier Molina threw him out when he was trying to steal second base. Jose Reyes, recently traded to the Rockies, followed with a single to left field. Nolan Arenado later doubled, scoring Reyes to make it 1-0.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Cardinals were able to tie the game up. Matt Carpenter started off what turned out to be an amazing day for the third baseman with a single. Randal Grichuk followed that with a double, sending Carpenter to third. Kolten Wong tied the game by grounding out to shortstop.
St. Louis increased that lead in the bottom of the third inning. Yadier Molina led off with a single, and, after a Mark Reynolds strikeout, Stephen Piscotty singled as well. Martinez then grounded into a fielder’s choice, as Molina was thrown out at third. But Carpenter stepped back up to the plate, and launched a three-run home run to give them a 4-1 lead.
While the Cardinals hitting was much better on Thursday night, the same couldn’t be said about the pitching. Martinez had thrown over 70 pitches before the start of the fifth inning, and had a struggle throughout the night of getting a good, consistent command of his pitches.
Perhaps his worst notable moment came during the top of the fourth inning. After a double by Nick Hundley that scored DJ LeMahieu, the pitcher Rusin hit his first career home run to tie the game at 4-4.
Colorado retook the lead the following inning, when Corey Dickerson singled to left-center scoring Carlos Gonzalez.
But in what was a constant theme during the game, it wasn’t the case for long. Carpenter led off, and hit his second home run of the night to tie the game up. Later in the inning, with two outs and after a Jhonny Peralta single, Jason Heyward tripled to make it 6-5, but he got caught in a rundown to end the inning.
Seth Maness entered to relieve Martinez in the top of the sixth, as his final line for the game was: 5.0 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 6 Ks. Maness, however, started off rough as well, allowing a game-tying home run to Hundley. After Rafael Betancourt entered to pitch for Rusin in the bottom of the sixth, it became a bullpen battle for the remainder of the game. During the inning, Moss made his debut with the Cardinals, and, despite the mixed reactions regarding the trade, received a welcoming ovation from the Busch Stadium crowd.
In the top of the eighth, Kevin Siegrist entered to pitch. Brandon Barnes led off with a single, and Blackmon sacrificed into a fielder’s choice. However, a throwing error by Siegrist allowed both to remain on base. Reyes hit into a sacrifice fly, scoring Barnes. Blackmon later scored on an error, when Siegrist tried to throw him out at third base (on a caught stealing attempt), to make it 8-6 Rockies.
With John Axford on the mound in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals had themselves in a familiar situation: down, but not out. Before Axford came in to pitch, Carpenter had already pitched a ground rule double. Grichuk then walked. Wong singled to load the bases for Peralta. And Peralta made it count, hitting a two-RBI single, tying the game up. Pete Kozma entered to pinch run. Heyward was intentionally walked, and Molina popped up too shallow for Wong to try and score.
Up stepped Garcia, who, after a lot of awareness and patience at the plate, was walked with the bases loaded, to give the Cardinals the 9-8 walk-off win. It was the first walk-off win on a walk since April 30th, 2004, when Mike Matheny was walked with the bases loaded.
Carlos Villanueva improved to 4-3, and Axford dropped to 3-5. Carpenter hit his 11th and 12th home runs in the game. The Cardinals improve to 65-37, and the Rockies fall to 43-57. With Pittsburgh’s 15-5 loss to the Reds, the Cardinals also raise their division lead to 6.0 games.
(AP Photo/Billy Hurst)
