The St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday night game against the Washington Nationals was a parade of missed opportunities and sloppy play, but the St. Louis Cardinals would prevail as Jordan Walker, Nathan Church and JJ Wetherholt played the role of the heroes.
The Cardinals got off to a fast start Tuesday night as JJ Wetherholt drew a walk to lead off the game and then stole 2nd. Alec Burleson singled to right, but Wetherholt was unable to score as he had to make sure Burleson’s ball was not caught. Thanks
to an error by JJ Abrams, Wetherholt scored on a ground ball from Jordan Walker. Nolan Gorman then singled to score Alec Burleson making the score 2-0 Cardinals, but he was thrown out trying to take 2nd base.
Matthew Liberatore was not able to take advantage of his early lead as Washington answered in the bottom of the 1st as Wood singled to center. After Mead struck out looking, House singled to center moving Wood up to 2nd. Lile singled Mead in making the score 2-1 Cardinals.
Washington would draw even in the bottom of the 3rd inning when James Wood hit an opposite field bomb. Mead would give the Nationals a 3-2 lead when he hit a 398 foot home run in the bottom of the 5th inning making it 3-2 Nationals. Lile would also score in the bottom of the 5th inning on a single from Abrams giving Washington a 4-2 lead. The Nationals would get another RBI single from Mead in the bottom of the 6th inning scoring Wood making it 5-2 Washington. Matthew Liberatore was not sharp as he completed 5 innings giving up 9 hits, 2 walks and 4 earned runs.
The Cardinals missed an opportunity in the top of the 4th inning when Thomas Saggese grounded into a double play after a Gorman single and a walk by Winn. Similar situation in the top of the 6thn when Saggese would strike out with Gorman and Winn on base again, but he would more than make up for it later.
The score would stay 5-2 Nationals until the top of the 7th inning when Jordan Walker would slam an opposite field home run getting the Cardinals one run closer making it 5-3.
In the 8th inning, Masyn Winn walked after nearly being hit by another pitch. That brought up Nathan Church who would turn on a 1-2 pitch from Varland and tie the game with a 2-run bomb.
George Soriano entered the game in the bottom of the 8th inning and quickly set the Nationals down 1-2-3 including 2 strikeouts. He would also shut down Washington in the bottom of the 9th inning to send the game to extras after the Cardinals failed to score in the top of the 9th.
In the top of the 10th inning, Thomas Saggese would redeem himself with a hustle double to left-center scoring Masyn Winn making it 6-5 Cardinals.
Yohel Pozo successfully moved Saggese to third base grounding out to the right side of the infield. Nathan Church was unable to bring him in, but JJ Wetherholt picked him up as he ripped a double down the right field line giving St. Louis a 7-5 lead.
Riley O’Brien was brought in to shut down the Washington Nationals in the bottom of the 10th inning. He would bring drama as he hit Vivas after getting two strikes, but he then struck out JJ Abrams. Nolan Gorman channeled his inner Nolan Arenado making an incredible barehanded throw to first base to get Young which Alec Burleson also made a great play on. Lile would score on a wild pitch to make the game 7-6, but O’Brien struck out Nasim Nuñez to end the game.
The Cardinals are now 6-5 through the first two weeks of the season and will face former teammate Miles Mikolas Wednesday afternoon. Game time is scheduled to be 3:05pm central time.
