ST. LOUIS — An early flex against an ace known for rarely giving up such innings put the Cardinals in position to do something even rarer for them this season.
The Cardinals pounced on Miami right-hander Sandy Alcantara for four runs in the firstr inning and then held on to complete the first series sweep of the year at Busch Stadium. The four runs in the first grew into a 6-4 victory against the Marlins on Wednesday afternoon to thrust the resurgent Cardinals to their first five-game winning streak of the season. Nolan Gorman provided three of the first-inning runs with his 19th homer of the season. He finished the game with two hits, a steal, and four RBIs.
Pitchers out of the Cardinals’ bullpen handled all nine innings of the game, with Chris Stratton called on to close the game in the absence of Jordan Hicks.
The Marlins got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before Stratton ended the game with a fly out to right field.
Stratton secured his first save of the season and his first as a Cardinal.
The Cardinals’ only previous series sweep of the season came at Fenway Park back in mid-May. The current winning streak dragged the Cardinals out of last place in the National League Central and sends them to Wrigley Field for a four-game set against the rival Cubs. The Cardinals will have the chance to muscle their way into third place after meandering into the All-Star break 12 ½ back of first place.
The Cardinals got four hits off Alcantara in the first inning and then did not manage another four hits against the right-hander through the next four innings.
They made the most of the four in the first.
A day after his walk-off homer – his first walk-off hit as a Cardinal – Nolan Arenado continued bingeing RBIs. His single to right scored Paul Goldschmidt for the game’s first run, and the rally was afoot. With Lars Nootbaar and Arenado at the corners, Gorman launched a 419-foot homer to the batter’s eye in center field to push the Cardinals ahead, 4-0.
Against the former Cardinals’ pitching prospect and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, the Cardinals sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning and Alcantara still needed a double play to evade more trouble. Old-school in his pursuit of innings and ability to shoulder full games, Alcantara pressed on – outlasting the Cardinals’ starter Dakota Hudson and the first of the Cardinals’ relievers.
The eight hits are the third most the right-hander has allowed.
Three Cardinals relievers held a two-run lead through the heart of the game before the offense widened the game lead. An error helped goose the Cardinals’ lineup as Brendan Donovan scored while the Marlins tracked down the wild throw. Gorman followed with a two-out single for his fourth RBI of the game.
Hudson strikes early pace
Thrust into the starting spot for a “bullpen” game Wednesday, that did not mean that Hudson had to submit to the assignment and leave the game as a reliever would.
He could, the Cardinals advertised, pitch as deep as his performance merited.
He quickly struck with an approach that gave him a better chance.
Hudson filled the strike zone with pitches, avoiding the walks that hounded his innings in spring training and have limited his efficiency as a starter. The right-hander threw 42 strikes in his first 60 pitches. He finished three innings with 45 strikes in 66 pitches – and he did not walk a batter. His pitch count started to swell as the Marlins got five hits off him, but he also provided a pivotal scoreless inning.
After the Cardinals took a 4-0 lead on Alcantara, Hudson got three outs from four batters in the second inning to keep Miami from answering. His final two outs of the inning were groundballs.
The two runs Miami scored on Hudson came on the same swing and were set up by the same wild pitch. In the third inning, singles by Jacob Stallings and Jorge Soler gave the middle of the Marlins’ order a chance to do what they could not in the second – answer the Cardinals’ scoring. Hudson spiked a wild pitch that allowed both runners to advance 90 feet, and that put them in scoring position for Jesus Sanchez’s single that cleaved the Cardinals’ lead in half.
It was up to the bullpen to keep it there.
Rarely seen Thompson throws two scoreless
As outlined by manager Oliver Marmol, the scenario he wanted for rookie lefty Zack Thompson to reappear out of the bullpen was also one the team did not want to face.
Thompson returned to the majors July 5, a week before the All-Star break, and he had not appeared once since. His most recent pitches in competition were June 29th for Class AAA Memphis, and his last outing in the majors was two months and two roles and too long ago. Marmol said he needed to get Thompson in Wednesday’s game.
Asked for what situation would be available to Thompson, Marmol said he’d prefer the once and former reliever come in for a clean inning, and he added one other description.
“Down,” Marmol said.
So, the ideal spot for the rookie left-hander would be sometime Wednesday in a game the Cardinals wanted to win, but when they were trailing.
Marmol had to settle for Wednesday.
In a tight game.
With the Cardinals holding a two-run lead and Hudson out after allowing two runs in the third inning, Thompson entered – with a slim lead and as many innings as he could hold it until the Cardinals reached their late-inning options. Thompson allowed a single to the first batter he faced and gave up three hits total, but he kept the ball on the ground. That got him through two scoreless innings thanks to two double plays. It was his first appearance this season of two scoreless innings in the majors.
The score remained unchanged when he turned the ball over to Andre Pallante.
Arenado flashes gold to left, to right
There have been several times in the past week that Arenado has volunteered a critical evaluation of his own defense, even pausing once Tuesday night after his walk-off homer to make the point that any defensive issues the team has had this season involve him, even start with him.
He has also said the turnaround should begin with him.
Consider the sixth inning.
On consecutive groundballs – one to his left, the next to his right – Arenado ranged for the kind of plus defensive plays that are going to restore his Defensive Runs Saved rankings to the positive side. On a shade to the left against left-handed batter Sanchez, Arenado charged the grounder and threw from a hop, ala a shortstop, to get the out at first base. The next ball in play was a grounder down the third base line that took Arenado the opposite direction, and farther away from first.
He backhanded it, got up in the air, and from near where the infield dirt meets the left-field grass threw. In Miami, Arenado said that he felt like he wasn’t getting the same zip on his throws. In Seattle, he traced that back to taking fewer grounders this season and throwing less. In St. Louis, on Wednesday, he had plenty of arm strength on that throw to leave his feat and make the longest throw for a third baseman without leaving fair territory – and beat the runner.
