Game Summary
Andrea Pallante pitched 5 stout innings to get the Cardinals started. Gorman, Saggese, Burleson and Walker drove in early runs to stake the Cardinals to an early 4-1 lead. Unfortunately, the Cardinal bullpen melted down yet again, with a disastrous debut by Hancel Rincon, allowing the Rockies to go up 6-4. But a late 3-run HR by Ivan Herrera bailed the team out, followed by an O’Brien save to close out a win, ugly, but a win.
Pre-game notes
- Greetings from Denver, Colorado. It’s a warm evening tonight, just under 90 degrees start. Weather won’t be a factor, other than I expect the ball to be flying.
- Pallante goes for the Cardinals. I’m curious how Coor affects his stuff.
- Feltner for the Rockies.
- Fernandez optioned to make room for Pallante. I assume that means Mautz to the bullpen and likely hot tonight.
The first innings
The Cardinals go quickly in the top of the first. Pallante walks the first guy
on first pitches, McCarthy, who was a pain in the series back in St. Louis. A stolen base, and ground out and a fly ball produce a quick 1-0 lead for the Rockies.
The Cardinals answer right back in the sentence. Walker leads off with a single and Bernal walks. A one-out RBI single by Gorman ties the game and a liner by Saggese that carooms off the pitcher into the outfield lands another run. Pallante works in and out of trouble in the bottom of the second, having trouble locating any of his pitches.
The Cardinals go quietly in the third, Burleson racks up another strikeout. He is on an awful streak. In the bottom of the third, Pallante continues to struggle with command, issuing two more walks, but working in and out of trouble. Cardinals up 2-1, in spite of Pallante with 4 walks and 0 K’s.
The middle innings
The top of the fourth is more of the same. The Cardinals ABs look like hitters who flew in late and didn’t get enough sleep. Feltner K’ed 5 through four innings. In the bottom of fourth, Pallante yet again dealt with traffic but a GIDP settled things nicely. I don’t think I’ve seen him land a 4-seam FB for a strike all night.
Rolling into the fifth inning (noting the game is barely an hour old), the Cardinals rally. Church and Torres lead off with a walk and a single. Herrera reaches on a ball whiffed by their SS Carrig. They gave him a hit, but he just screwed up a doubleplay ball straight up. Burleson singled in a run. Walker hit a SacFly that scored a second run, but a TOOTBLAN by Herrera resulted in an out at third on the play. Bernal promptly doubled, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd but the rally ended there as Baez grounded out. Cardinals leave the inning leading 4-1, but should have been more. Pallante did a good thing and comes out with a quick, clean bottom of the fifth. 72 pitches for him.
Feltner was lifted for Manfredi in the sixth. Cardinals went quietly. Rincon in for Pallante in the bottom of the sixth. After a quick out, things went sideways. Rumfield with a Coors triple on a ball not well played by Walker. An unsuccessful challenge by the Cardinals results in an umpire doing a jig after the replay supported the call. followed by a Rincon wild pitch to narrow the score. Carrig scores on a poor choice by Church who tried to leap and catch a ball 20 feet over his head, turning a double into an inside-the-park-homerun. A third hit ends Rincon’s debut outing, which felt a lot like Mautz’ debut the other night. Ugly. Bruihl in for Rincon. An automatic ball on a pitch timer violation adds drama and an Oli ejection. Not entirely sure what happened there, but suspecting the roots of this was the earlier challenge. A double and a single continue the avalanche, tying the game. A squeeze bunt gives the Rockie’s the lead, and no out is recorded. Runner looked out, but alas, no challenge remaining. The inning mercifully ends with the Rockies leading 5-4. Could have been much worse.
The decisive and bitter end
The Cardinals offer no resistance to the vaunted Rockies pitching in the seventh. Burleson racks up another K. This is not going well. Bruihl remained in for the seventh. He gives up a HR to Rumfield and was promptly replaced by Winquest. He gets two quick outs, but the Rockies now up 6-4.
Herget replaces Winfredi in the eighth. Two quick outs followed by a Baez single chases Herget for Bernadino. Urias pinch hits for Gorman and pops out. Winquest remains in for the eighth and works through without drama.
In the ninth, Saggese leads off with a walk and steals second. A fly reduces the WPA for the Cardinals. Fermin gets on via error putting runners at second and third. Herrera crushes a 3-run HR to straight away center, dramatically changing the Cardinals’ WPA. For the record, WPA calc is unaware of the Cardinal bullpen situation.
O’Brien in to close. Leads out with a 3-pitch K. Goodman grounds out. A single and an ROB throwing error on a pick-off adds drama, but a K ends it quickly. Cardinals win 7-6.
Post-Game Notes
- This season has had some ugly losses. This one falls into the ugly win category.
- Be sure and check out “Tonight on the Farm – Friday 9.4” over at The Feed.
- Walker reached 100 RBI this game.
- Watching a game at Coors Field is indeed a pleasant experience. I wish the Cardinals played better here, but they don’t. It’s a weird place to play.
