What a day it was for St. Louis sports.
During the afternoon, the Rams kicked off the 2015 NFL season by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 34-31 in overtime.
While that was going on, the St. Louis Cardinals entered Sunday’s series finale against the Cincinnati Reds trying to avoid being swept in a four game series against the Reds for the first time since the 2003 season. They looked to get out of a slump that had been happening at one of the worst times of the season.
And thanks to timely hitting and pitching, that’s exactly what happened.
St. Louis blew out Cincinnati 9-2 to close out the four game series.
The starting pitchers for the series finale were Michael Wacha (15-5, 2.96 ERA) and Raisel Iglesias (3-7, 4.18). For the first few innings of the game, both Wacha as well as Iglesias did a good job on the mound, keeping the game scoreless. But in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Reds were able to score first in the game, when Tucker Barnhart hit a sacrifice fly that scored Todd Frazier. Earlier in the second inning, Frazier hit a solo home run as well.
In the top of the fifth, the Cardinals responded with two runs of their own. Kolten Wong hit an infield single to score Jon Jay, tying the game at 1-1. Wong later advanced to third base, and Matt Carpenter singled to score Wong.
St. Louis carried the momentum for the rest of the game. The following inning, with Greg Garcia on base, Tommy Pham, who has seen less playing time as of late, made the most of his plate appearance, hitting a two-run home run to make it 4-2 Cardinals. As for Wacha, his final pitching line of the afternoon was: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 Ks.
Arguably the biggest inning came in the top of the eighth, when the Cardinals scored five runs. The first was scored when a wild pitch scored Wong to make it 5-2. Jason Heyward later scored Stephen Piscotty on a double. Yadier Molina scored Heyward on a single as it became 7-2. The final two runs were scored when Matt Adams, who just recently returned from an injury that’s plagued him nearly all season, hit a two-run home run, to give the Cardinals a 9-2 lead.
The win was Wacha’s 16th of the season, and St. Louis improved to 89-54, one win away from matching last season’s win total. They return to play Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers, in which Carlos Martinez will get the start.
(AP Photo/Gary Landers)
