ST. LOUIS _ It took a bit longer Wednesday, but the St. Louis Cardinals just can't shake the Boston Red Sox.
Starter Mike Leake pitched well, only giving up two runs in seven innings, but the bullpen let the game get away as the Cardinals fell to the Red Sox 5-4 in 13 innings. Trevor Rosenthal allowed two runs in the eighth after Leake departed to make it a 4-4 tie, and Sam Tuivailala gave up the go-ahead run in the 13th.
Tuivailala had gotten the first two men out in the 13th, but gave up a ground-rule double to Mitch Moreland. Pinch hitter Chris Young brought Moreland home two batters later with an RBI single.
To get the game started, center fielder Dexter Fowler led off the bottom of the first with a home run to put the Cardinals on the board immediately. It was Fowler's fifth homer of the season and the 22nd leadoff dinger of his career.
Then came the fateful second inning. Catcher Yadier Molina got things going with a double to left field, following by Aledmys Diaz evading a tag by opposing pitcher Rick Porcello to beat out a soft ground ball.
The first run of the inning came during the next at-bat, when rookie right fielder Magneuris Sierra singled to right. Sierra has hit in all seven games he's appeared in so far, and all of his hits have been singles.
Second baseman Kolten Wong then doubled home Diaz to get the score to 3-0. After Leake grounded out without a run scoring and Fowler walked, left fielder Tommy Pham notched his own groundout, but this time a run scored to make it 4-0 Cardinals.
Matt Carpenter then walked, giving Jedd Gyorko an opportunity with the bases loaded, but he grounded into a forceout to end the inning.
Leake, Wednesday's starter, was on cruise control from the get-go. Though he wasn't particularly efficient needing 95 pitches through his first six innings, those frames were all scoreless.
In the seventh Leake threw a pitch he'd probably want back, however. Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. crushed the first pitch he saw an estimated 441 feet to straightaway center, halving the Cardinals' lead to 4-2. Leake navigated the rest of the seventh without issue, finishing his night with just the two runs in seven innings.
Rosenthal's bump in the road in the eighth was his first this season. Rosenthal walked Dustin Pedroia with one out and then gave up an RBI triple to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, making it 4-3.
The next batter, left fielder Andrew Benintendi, drove home Bogaerts on a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Both closers, Seung-hwan Oh and Craig Kimbrel, pitched 1-2-3 ninth innings for their respective clubs to send the game to extra innings.
There wasn't anything doing between the 10th and 12th innings, but in the 13th Tuivailala let things fall apart.
The Cardinals have an off day Thursday before beginning a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.
