Dustin May was not in his finest form Sunday, but it didn’t matter as JJ Wetherholt, Iván Herrera and the St. Louis Cardinals offense absolutely unloaded on the Kansas City Royals Sunday afternoon eventually winning a slugfest. The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen would be worn out by the end of it, though.
It only took JJ Wetherholt 3 pitches before he would alert the Kansas City Royals that the St. Louis Cardinals bats would not be sleepy on Sunday as he slammed a 90 mph cutter over the right field wall
for an immediate 1-0 Cardinals lead.
The very next pitch hit Iván Herrera in the head for his 21st HBP of the season. Fortunately, it only hit helmet and not skull. (He would get sweet revenge later) How much longer are the St. Louis Cardinals going to tolerate this? At least the Cardinals made the Royals pay for this sin as Alec Burleson followed that with a walk and two batters later, Lars Nootbaar hit a double to right-center scoring Herrera and doubling the St. Louis lead to 2-0. Masyn Winn would improve on that by slamming a 79 mph sweeper into the left field bullpen making it 5-0 Cardinals.
Unfortunately, the Kansas City Royals would not just quietly accept their defeat as they scored two runs of their own when Jensen reached on an infield single and Jac Caglianone walked followed by a single by Massey scoring both of them and cutting the St. Louis lead to 5-2.
The St. Louis Cardinals understood their need to keep adding runs to the board Sunday and JJ Wetherholt was more than up to the task. After Nathan Church doubled, JJ took a 93 mph four-seam fastball the other way a long way 360 feet over the left field wall getting those two runs back and upping the St. Louis lead to 7-2. Rookie of the Year tendencies, much?
The Kansas City Royals were hitting Dustin May hard on Sunday. The bottom of the 2nd inning went much worse than the bottom of the 1st. Nick Lofton and Jac Caglianone hit a pair of 2-run homers severely reducing the Cardinals advantage at 9-6. Caglianone’s home run was the loudest of them all soaring 444 feet into the right-center field fountains. The 2nd inning would be Dustin May’s last as his line looked unlike his most recent starts with just 2 innings pitched allowing 6 hits and 6 earned runs while only striking out 2 and walking 1. That would kickoff an unintentional bullpen game as Max Rajic would give St. Louis their first scoreless inning against Kansas City shutting the Royals down in the bottom of the 3rd and would continue until 1 out in the bottom of the 4th inning when he was replaced by Matt Svanson. He would enter the game after Rajic walked Jensen. He would strike out Garcia, but walked Caglianone. Salvador Perez would make the Cardinals pay for that walk as he singled scoring Jensen and reducing the Cardinals lead further to 9-7.
Never fear as the St. Louis Cardinals never stopped piling on runs and the next burst would come with two outs in the top of the 5th. Nathan Church walked followed by JJ Wetherholt’s third hit of the game which was a single to left. Iván Herrera would say bye bye to a 96 mph four-seam fastball jolting it 414 feet over the left field fence giving the Cardinals back a more commanding 12-7 lead.
The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen carnival merry-go-round would bring Gordon Graceffo into the game to face the Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the 5th. He would keep the Royals off the board in the 5th shutting Kansas City down 1-2-3. JoJo Romero was given the responsibility of handling the bottom of the 6th inning after the Cardinals failed to score in the top of it. He would give up a leadoff home run to Jensen reducing the Cardinals lead to 12-8, but would shut down the Royals for the remainder of the 6th inning.
The Cardinals late inning hall monitors would start with Ryne Stanek who was tasked with keeping the Royals under wraps in the bottom of the 7th inning. He would get a Major League assist from Jordan Walker who snagged a Salvador Perez ball on a home run trajectory over the top of the right field wall keeping it 12-8 Cardinals…barely. The Royals would threaten after a throwing error by Masyn Winn which allowed Lane Thomas to reach second, but Stanek would strike out Misner to end the 7th.
George Soriano kept the Royals scoreless in the bottom of the 8th inning only allowing a walk. The bottom of the 9th inning would be handled by Riley O’Brien. What version of Riley O’Brien would the St. Louis Cardinals see Sunday? Well, the first pitch he threw went 426 feet over the right field wall launched by Jac Caglianone reducing the Cardinals lead to 12-9. His second pitch hit Salvadore Perez in the elbow. If this was retaliation for all of the Herrera hit-by-pitches, it was poor timing. The tying run would come to the plate in the form of Lane Thomas after O’Brien gave up a single to Massey. Blaze Jordan would make a great play on a high chop by Thomas throwing home to nail Salvador Perez, but he was called safe even after St. Louis challenged even though it appeared his hand missed home plate. That cut the Cardinals lead to 12-10. Misner then successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt which moved the tying run up to second base with just one out. O’Brien was very fortunate that the Royals did not have any ABS challenges left as Rave struck out looking. He then was able to get Rave out on a another high chopper narrowly throwing him out at first. Whew.
The St. Louis Cardinals will begin a homestand and welcome a former teammate as the Arizona Diamondbacks come to town. It’s Andre Pallante taking the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals while the Diamondbacks starter is yet to be announced. Let’s hope Nolan Arenado gets the welcome home he deserves Monday night. First pitch at Busch Stadium is scheduled for 6:45pm and the broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv.
