Cards Cruise To 8th Straight Win; 6th Straight Series Win

Cardinals lineup:

1.Matt Carpenter(1B)

2.Yadier Molina(C)

3.Jose Martinez(RF)

4.Marcell Ozuna(LF)

5.Paul DeJong(SS)

6.Jedd Gyorko(3B)

7.Kolten Wong(2B)

8.Harrison Bader(CF)

9.Austin Gomber(P)

Let’s get the important questions out of the way first:

Did Matt Carpenter reach base? Yes.

Did Harrison Bader make an incredible, mind-boggling defensive play? I don’t know; you tell me:

Did Yadier Molina start again? Yes. Good lord. 23 straight games. Is...is he involved is some sort of bet or dare?

Was the average age of the Cardinals pitchers in the game 25 or under? Well, it was until wizened old codger Bud Norris came into the game. 8 innings of Gomber and Daniel Poncedeleon before that, keeping a youthful spryness on the mound.

And most importantly: DID THE CARDINALS WIN ANOTHER ONE? OH YOU BEST BELIEVE SO

On to the game:

Starting pitcher Austin Gomber didn’t have ideal stuff tonight but got quite good results, so I will reserve any complaints. His line tonight: 6 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 0 R, 6 K.

Cardinals runs tonight:

2nd inning - a Marcell Ozuna solo shot that was CRUSHED. 113.8 mph exit velocity, good for the 2nd highest exit velocity by a Cardinal since Statcast began tracking 3 years ago, second to....Marcell Ozuna.

5th inning - wild pitch to Molina, Harrison Bader swoops right on in and scores, then playfully flips his hair about. Jeremy Hellickson was actually injured on the play, though, so the playful hair flip was a bit muted. Following this, Molina singles, scoring Matt Carpenter.

6th inning - Bader lines a single out to left scoring Kolten Wong.

The Nationals managed to tack two runs in the 9th on a solo shot by Daniel Murphy and a sac fly by Matt Wieters. Too little, too late, though - and the game never felt like it was falling apart.

Okay, time to address the elephant in the room. Yes, Matt Carpenter was lifted from the game after being hit by a pitch in his knuckles of the right hand. Yes, after what happened to Paul DeJong earlier this season, this situation makes us all nervous. No, the initial x-rays did not show a break. Yes, this is still mildly terrifying. There are 27 bones in a hand; who knows how easily they can be snapped apart like uncooked pasta? Mike Shildt said he expects him to play tomorrow in the post-game conference, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s all hold our breath until tomorrow, shall we?

Cardinals look for another sweep tomorrow against the Nats at 6:15 pm.