Time for some makeup baseball! The Reds briefly fly into town to close out a series rained out in late April. Lineup:
Today's #STLCards Information
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 26, 2017
: @MichaelWacha
⏰: 3:15 PM
@KMOXSports
@FSMidwest
https://t.co/twPRyxzrqu pic.twitter.com/IcK54snCn2
That’s a whole lot of AAAA talent there, but then again, it’s Brandon Finnegan, who (despite his relatively credible start this year) has a career 4.89 FIP, so who knows!
The Cardinals got on the board quickly in the first inning. Tommy Pham walks, advances on a fly ball, steals third, scores on a wild pitch. Tommy Pham knows ALL the ways to take a base, and he is not afraid to use them. Pham heroics aside, he would have scored anyway, as Jedd Gyorko would hit a homer a mere batter later. Cards up 3-0.
Paul DeJong led things off in the second with a double, but was later thrown out by...quite a bit at home on a fielder’s choice. Like “ball in Devin Mesoraco’s glove before he even started sliding” quite a bit.
In the third inning, Finnegan gave Gyorko a wide berth. This might be the perfect example of a “I would prefer not to give you anything to hit after you jacked my last pitch to you 413 feet” walk:
Despite being followed by a single by Yadier Molina, no runs would score as Luke Voit hit into a double play.
Cincinnati would put a run on the board in the fourth - back to back singles by Scooter Gennett (/shakes fist at sky scoooooooooooottttterrr) and Joey Votto led off the inning, but Wacha was able to limit the damage with a sac fly followed by consecutive strikeouts.
In the bottom of the fourth, Finnegan came out of the game with an apparent reinjury of his trapezius (or perhaps a injury of his triceps, depending on what source) and was replaced by Austin Brice. The Cardinals would take quick advantage of the rookie (less than 40 ML IP) with singles by DeJong and Pham, and then a home run by recently-returned-from-Memphis Randal Grichuk (still working that lean muscle from all the tilaps LOL GOD BLESS). Cardinals lead 6-1.
To get the scoring started in the sixth inning, Greg Garcia leaned in and gave us what we all look for from him - getting on base by being hit by a pitch. Pham would follow up with a single, as would Grichuk. Piscotty reaching on error and Gyorko singling to center would add 2 more runs to the Cardinal total. Brice would be removed in favor of Wandy Peralta, who would escape the inning with no more damage by inducing a double play and a groundout.
The Reds would tack on a run against Tyler Lyons in the 8th following an Adam Duvall sac fly. John Brebbia would come in to quickly close things out in the 9th. 8-2 Cardinals final score.
Other notes:
- Molina threw out a runner again, showing he has not completely succumbed to the ravages of time that will one day come for us all
- Luke Voit’s grandma pays him $25 for every home run he hits
- Wacha looked at various points in the game to be in danger of being 2017 Wacha, but managed to get the results of 2014 Wacha - 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 5 K, 1 BB