In what could be his last start as a St. Louis Cardinal prior to the trade deadline, Dustin May completely shut down the Chicago Cubs for 5 innings. What did the Cardinals do with the remaining 4 innings? Well, let’s tell that story. Spoiler Alert: the ending was amazing. but it would take more than 9 innings to play out.
For the first 5 innings of Wednesday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, there was next to no offense to share and that’s because both Dustin May and Cubs starter
Matthew Boyd were dealing. Not trying to take anything away from Boyd’s effort, but the Cardinals lack of offensive punch lately helped his cause some. Considering the fact that Dustin May is widely expected to be traded prior to next week’s deadline, it was no surprise that he was pulled from the game after 5 very strong innings. Dustin May’s likely final stat line as a St. Louis Cardinal was 5 complete innings allowing only 1 hit, no runs while striking out 3 and walking 2. That kind of effort will be very much in demand from contending teams. The only question is what kind of return the Cardinals will receive if he is dealt. We’ll find out soon enough.
Where was the Cardinals offense? Well, that’s a question the fanbase has been asking since the All-Star break. The question specifically for Wednesday night’s game was it almost arrived in the bottom of the 6th inning. “Almost” is such a big word. Jordan Walker started the inning with a leadoff single. Iván Herrera, who the Yankees have reportedly expressed interest in, moved him over with a ground out to the right side. Alec Burleson then proved he can hit lefties as he nudged a single into right field that wasn’t elusive enough to score Walker as he was held up at third. With runners at first and third with just one out, Masyn Winn struck out, but Jose Fermin was given a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Blaze Jordan. He sadly popped out weakly to the catcher to end the inning. In a way, the Cardinals 6th inning was a metaphor for their season. So much promise, but at the end of the day, nada.
As for the Cardinals bullpen handling the final 4 innings, Justin Bruihl kept the Cubs scoreless in the top of the 6th inning. For the top of the 7th inning, it was Ryne Stanek’s turn. He’s one of the many Cardinals who is rumored to be available at the trade deadline, too. He allowed some drama as he gave Michael Conforto a two-out walk and then moved him up to scoring position at second base with a wild pitch. Stanek then walked Ramirez to give the Cubs runners at first and second with two outs. He was able to blow a 99 mph four-seam fastball past Dansby Swanson to end the inning and keep the Cubs in zero runs land. George Soriano covered the 8th inning with just a walk to Suzuki being the wart.
The Cardinals pitching staff was truly in lockdown mode heading into the top of the 9th inning. Dustin May and the other 3 relievers had collectively only allowed 1 hit. Riley O’Brien’s mission was to keep that streak intact in the top of the 9th. Riley got Bregman out to start the 9th with a weak flyout to right. Cardinals killer Ian Happ struck out on one of Riley’s 81 mph wicked sweepers for the second out. O’Brien then had to deal with Michael Conforto who he plunked on the big toe with a two-strike sweeper gone rogue. Justin Dean was brought on as a pinch-runner for Conforto to give Chicago some speed on the bases. Dean moved into scoring position at second when Riley threw a wild pickoff attempt past Burleson at first. St. Louis chose to intentionally walk Ramirez to bring up Dansby Swanson who was 0-3 on the night. We all held our breath as Swanson’s weak flyout to right field was tracked down by Jordan Walker keeping the Cubs scoreless through 9 innings.
Could the St. Louis Cardinals finally beat the Chicago Cubs in walk-off fashion? It was up to the bottom half of the lineup to get it done. Masyn Winn struck out against Cubs reliever Thielbar to start the Cardinals bottom of the 9th inning. That brought up the Ferminator aka José Fermín. He will not be allowed to wear the Ferminator shirt tomorrow as he whiffed, too. Blaze Jordan was the Cardinals final hope to avoid extra innings. He ripped a 77 mph curveball into the left field corner for a double to give St. Louis a runner in scoring position which became Bryan Torres who was brought in to pinch-run for Blaze. It was then up to Nathan Church who immediately went down 2 strikes on sweepers from Thielbar and then popped out weakly to Dansby Swanson at short which sent the game into extras.
In the 10th inning, it was Luis Gastelum on the mound for the Cardinals. He got Nico Hoerner out on a line drive that was grabbed by JJ Wetherholt for the first out, but arch enemy Pete Crow-Armstrong crushed a 81 mph changeup 424 feet into the right field stands scoring free runner Dansby Swanson and giving the Cubs a soul-crushing 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals bottom of the 10th inning began with Nathan Church as the free runner at second with Lars Nootbaar leading off. He managed to beat out an infield single giving St. Louis runners at first and third with no outs and the potential winning run coming up. JJ Wetherholt, who had previously grounded out 4 times in a row, stepped to the plate as the potential winning run. He worked the count full and then drew a walk to load the bases with no one out and the mighty Home Run Derby king Jordan Walker walking to the plate. Jordan swung over a ball that rolled innocently to Bregman at third for the force out there, but no double play and Church scored to make it 2-1. That brought up Iván Herrera who put on his hero cape and ripped a game-winning walk-off into the left-centerfield gap scoring Wetherholt and Walker giving St. Louis a borderline miraculous 3-2 extra innings victory. More of this, please!
It’s the final game of a 4-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium. Andre Pallante gets the ball for the Cardinals while the Cubs will start Javier Assad. First pitch scheduled for 1:15pm with the TV broadcast available through Cardinals.tv.
