A heated rivalry between the birds on the bat and the baby bears began on Monday. We saw during game one a nice performance from Jake Woodford, strong offensive performances from Dylan Carlson and Paul Goldschmidt, and a quartet of errors committed by Chicago, all leading to a 8-3 win for St. Louis.
The win pushed the Cardinals back to the .500 mark. The team has been hitting their stride as of late. Starters have been posting up quality outings and the lineup has mildly turned a corner. Mike Shildt and co. were in pursuit of more results such as these on Tuesday in game two.
It would be late into the day when the Cardinals decided to announce their starter who’d match up against Trevor Williams. Johan Oviedo would be recalled from Triple-A Memphis to make his 11th start for the club. Junior Fernandez was optioned down to Memphis to make room for Oviedo on the active roster. Oviedo has been plagued with walking batters, pitching to the tone of a 5.09 ERA in 53 IP. His best start of the season was alongside Sandy Alcantara for Miami, going seven innings with no runs allowed and four strikeouts.
Thus far, Oviedo has yet to capture his elusive first career win. The righty unfortunately has been the bearer of bad luck, but would look to turn things around in game two. Chicago would send out Trevor Williams in this game. Williams back on July 6th vs. Philadelphia only went 3.2 IP with sevens runs, three of which were earned.
The scoring would begin with a groundout from Nico Hoerner that scored Kris Bryant during the top of the 2nd. In the bottom of the 3rd, after a one out double from Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson would follow up with a double of his own with two outs to tie the game at one for St. Louis.
Cardinals would push across three more runs in the bottom of the 4th, courtesy of a solo home run for Nolan Arenado, and singles from Bader and the Cardinals starter Oviedo, helping his own cause. Oviedo’s night would end after he gave St. Louis five innings, allowing one run, one walk, and five Ks. The 23 year old was in line for the win unless things got out of control.
Tommy Edman backed up Oviedo’s nice work by hitting his 6th home run of the season in the bottom half of the 6th. Jose Rondon delievered off the bench with a two out solo shot, his first as a Cardinal, giving St. Louis a commanding 6-1 in the late innings. Cabrera, Helsley, and Justin Miller combined pitched three shutout innings out of the pen following Oviedo’s impressive outing, setting things up nicely for St. Louis entering the 9th inning.
Luis Garcia entered the 9th slotted to face Wisdom, Hoerner, and Marisnick. Wisdom would strike out but reach on a wild pitch from Garcia, Hoerner singled to left and Wisdom advanced to 3rd on a throwing error by Paul DeJong, and Marisnick would walk, sending Sergio Alcantara to the plate with the bases loaded and no one out in the 9th for Chicago, down by five.
Shildt made a move he didn’t want to make. It was Alex Reyes time, looking to limit the damage and close things out for the Cardinals. He’d immediately walk Alcantara, the first batter he saw, making it a 6-2 game with still nobody out. Reyes would get Contreras to whiff at one for a big out number one. Another walk by Rizzo, the third of the inning, gave the Cubs just a three run deficit at 6-3. A two-run single by Baez and a a two-run double into the right field corner from Ian Happ capped off a six run inning for Chicago, miraculously giving them a 7-6 lead in the 9th.
Gallegos relived Reyes afterwards, looking to salvage the inning. He’d get Heyward to groundout and Wisdom to strikeout, but the Cubs now had a lead in a game where you thought for sure St. Louis would win. Chicago’s closer Craig Kimbrel promptly hammered in the final nail in the coffin, retiring Carpenter, Carlson, and Goldschmidt.
The Cubs staged an epic rally in the 9th to hand St. Louis a devastating 7-6 loss. Words cannot describe the amount of pain and sorrow that fills each and every corner of the Cardinals clubhouse. Oviedo, who despite the odds of making the trip from Memphis to face a tough division rival, looked sharp and was determined to give his team a fighting chance. Sadly, he’ll have to wait for that first win and live to fight another day.
With the loss, the Cardinals once again move back below the .500 threshold. Things just went from 0 to 60 in a split second tonight. It’s a shame too, because the Redbirds put up another strong showing offensively. Arenado hit his 18th of the year, and Edman and Rondon launched a couple out as well, plus Bader and Carlson got into the action once again. Oviedo did a great job as well, even though he pitched five innings. He wasn’t overpowering by any means, but he was able to manipulate the ball enough to where the Cubs would chase after it.
It’ll be a quick turnaround for both teams, one looking to forget the disaster that was tonight’s game, and the other looking to keep the magic alive. Game three on Wednesday will again start @ 7:15 PM CDT. The Cardinal killer Kyle Hendricks will face Ol’ Uncle Charlie, Adam Wainwright. Stay tuned for all the highlights and action from game three.
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