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Rangers @ Cardinals 6.19 recap: Ugh

Cards end their interleague homestand with yet another one-run loss.

By WyoCardsFan
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Texas Rangers @ St. Louis Cardinals

Martin Perez vs. Mike Leake
1:15 p.m. CT 
Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri

Today's Lineups -


Some News -

  • Seth Maness was recalled today in place of Dean Kiekhefer, who was optioned back to Memphis - MLB.com

Things that happened -

Top halves -

The Rangers struck first in the first.  Shin-Soo Choo singled.  Ian Desmond grounded into what could have been a double play, but as the booth described, the play was slow developing, and so Desmond  was safe at first.  He stole second- Fryer's throw beat him, but Diaz was not able to handle it.  The ball slipped into center field, and Desmond was able to take third.  He scored by tagging on the flyout by Nomar Mazara.  Rangers lead 1-0.

The second went a little better.  Rougned Odor popped up a bunt on the first pitch for the first out.  Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus grounded out.

Jhonny Peralta made a nice barehanded play on a grounder from Robinson Chirinos leading off the third, but was just barely too late with his throw.  Perez bunted him along to second.  But a lineout from Choo, an infield by single from Desmond and a flyout from Mazara left runners on the corners at the end of the frame.

With two outs in the fourth, Moreland crushed a Brandon Moss-like bomb deep deep into the right field stands, to tie the game.  Game tied 2-2.

Leake struck out the side in the fifth, and looked good doing so, especially with the slider.

Mazara put the Rangers back on top, homering to the Cards' 'pen in the sixth.  Beltre just about knocked one out just after him, but Piscotty settled under it on the track.  A duo of well placed grounders put runners on first and second for Chirinos with two outs, but Leake got him to groundout to end the threat.

Leake's final line: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5K, 86 pitches thrown

Matt Bowman took over the pitching duties in the seventh.  He had a nice easy 1-2-3.

He pitched the eighth as well.  Odor double to the right center gap with two outs, and then they elected to intentionally walk Moreland.  Bowman got his ground ball, but Diaz took his time, and Moreland beat the throw at second.  The call on the field was out, but it was a quick overturn.  That loaded the bases with two outs.  Jurickson Profar pinch-hit.  He singled into center, plating two.  Bowman out, Broxton in.  They got their third out, catching Andrus wandering a bit too far off of third base. Rangers lead 5-4.

Broxton pitched the ninth for the Birds, too.  Diaz made a nice backhand play to get one of the outs.  It was a good outing for Broxton.

Bottom halves -

Matt Carpenter worked a leadoff walk on Martin Perez, but that was quickly erased when Holliday grounded into a double play to end the frame.

Stephen Piscotty didn't like being behind one little bit.  On the first pitch of the second, he drove a sweet looking homer off of a center center fastball into the Ranger's bullpen.  Perez, though, bounced back and retired the next three.  Game tied 1-1.

Mike Leake grounded a one-out single to left in the third, followed by a scorching line drive single into center from Carpenter.  Diaz hit it to the same place, and hard enough that Leake had to hold at third, but it loaded the bases with one out.  Matt Holliday drove a deep one to the track, but instead of scoring four, only one came across, as Choo tracked it down - Leake tagged and scored.  Yadi's reaction in the dugout on the just missed grand slam was priceless.   Cards lead 2-1.

Perez got a couple quick groundball outs in the fourth, but then Tommy Pham blasted a liner into right field.  Choo misplayed it a bit, and it got by him, so Tommy took a chance on a triple.  The play was close, and Tommy was called safe, but the Rangers wanted to take another look.  They got their way, and he was called out, ending the inning.

Fryer led off the fifth with a hard hit grounder up the middle for a single.  An ugly botched hit and run attempt caught Fryer out at second, and Perez got the other two outs with little trouble.

Holliday tied things back up homering to the right field corner.  Piscotty drew a walk, and then Peralta singled to the left-center gap, putting runners on the corners with one out.  Perez walked Moss, and that was his last batter.  They brought in Barnette to face Pham, but the Cards countered with Matt Adams.  Adams struck out, swinging at a couple balls  in the dirt that he had no business swinging at.  That brought up Fryer, who watched four pitches out of the zone.  He took the walk, and drove in the go-ahead run in the process.  Kolten Wong pinch-hit for Leake, and he blooped a little fly out to shallow left to strand the bases loaded.  Cards lead 4-3.

Perez' final line: 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 94 pitches thrown.

Matt Carpenter stretched a single to a double and managed to avoid one tag, but then his momentum took him off the bag, and Odor held the tag.  Matheny came out to argue that Odor pushed him off the bag.  The umpires huddled for a while, and then beckoned Matheny out, and then I guess he officially issued a challenge, so they did the headset thing, and the call was upheld.  It took forever to come to that conclusion.  Barnette quickly collected the last two outs.

Matt Bush in the eighth.  He was nasty in his 1-2-3 effort.

Sam Dyson came in to try to close it down.  Greg Garcia led off with a single.  Fryer flew out deep to center.  Wong popped up in the infield.  Carpenter worked a walk.  With Diaz up, Dyson threw one to the backstop, advancing the runners to second and third, heightening the excitement for the moment.  Diaz ended up grounding out to second to end the game and the homestand.  Oops.  Rangers win 5-4.

Final Notes -

  • Today was Leake's 9th straight quality start.  As flawed as the stat may be, that's exactly what they signed him to do.  Good job, Mike Leake.
  • Matt Carpenter tweaked something on his slide, but no word during the game exactly what was going on.
  • Sorry for the lateness of this one.
  • Fangraphs
  • Game notes: Rangers | Cardinals

Looking ahead -

Tomorrow, the Cards, led by Jaime Garcia, head to Wrigley to take on old friend John Lackey.  The game starts at 7:05 CT.

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