Wong’s Defense and 3rd Triple in 3 Days Highlights in Cards’ 3-1 Victory over Giants

On this Labor Day afternoon, the Cards had to play their 5th game in about 50 hours or so, and they picked up their 4th victory out of 5. They returned to what has been their regular lineup with Tommy Edman starting at 3B and Matt Carpenter returned to the bench. Adam Wainwright took the hill with 6 days of rest, and the game turned out to be, for lack of a better word, a BABIP game. He had good control and walked nobody, but he also had just 1 strikeout, pretty much throwing the ball over the plate and letting his defense get the job done. Still, if someone told you at the end of last year that Wainwright would be making a 7-inning start for the 2019 Cardinals in September, you likely would have called them crazy. Today was a nice surprise, considering his outing of only 3.2 IP in his last start.

With 2 out in the top of the 1st, Evan Longoria lined a fastball for a base hit to center. Alex Dickerson grounded a ball to the right side, but Kolten Wong made a diving play to his left on the outfield grass to rob Dickerson of a base hit to end the inning.

Dexter Fowler sliced an outside fastball to left for a base hit to lead off the bottom of the 1st. Kolten Wong sharply grounded a hanging changeup down the 1st base line past Brandon Belt for a base hit that rolled into the right field corner. Giants’ RF Mike Yastrzemski tripped when trying to play the carom off the wall, and Fowler scored all the way from 1st base to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. Kolten Wong stood up safely with a triple, his 3rd in as many days.

Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to deep in the hole at shortstop. Wong scored to make it 2-0 Cardinals. Marcell Ozuna popped out to Belt at 1st in foul territory. After Paul DeJong worked a 3-2 walk, Yadier Molina grounded a center-cut fastball through the hole to left for a base hit to move DeJong to 2nd. Tommy Edman swung at a 3-2 fastball that was a little high and flied out to left to end the inning.

Adam Wainwright got out of the top of the 2nd inning in 8 pitches, although Brandon Crawford did give him a scare by flying one of his cutters to the track in right for the 3rd out. Giants’ starter Tyler Beede retired the Cards in order in the bottom half. With 2 out in the top of the 3rd, Yastrzemski ripped a low-and-in cutter to right for the Giants’ first hit of the day, but Wainwright struck Belt out on a 3-2 inside curveball to end the inning. With 1 out in the bottom of the 3rd, Goldschmidt drove a high-and-inside fastball off the left field wall for a double, a few feet away from being a homer. Ozuna struck out looking at a 3-2 low-and-away slider that could and maybe should have been called a ball. DeJong grounded an inside fastball up the middle for a base hit to score Goldschmidt and extend the Cards’ lead to 3-0. Molina lined out to right to end the inning.

With 2 out in the top of the 4th, Buster Posey softly lined an outside curveball through the hole to left for a base hit, but Kevin Pillar grounded into a 5-4 force to end the inning. Beede retired the bottom of the Cards’ order in order in the bottom of the 4th. With 1 out in the top of the 5th Mauricio Dubon laced a hanging curveball to left that one-hopped the wall for a double. Dubon only had 12 career plate appearances before today with only 2 hits, and this was his first double. Lefty Stephen Vogt pinch hit for the pitcher Beede and flied a high fastball to right field for the 2nd out. Wainwright’s first pitch to Yastrzemski was a curveball in the dirt that bounced forward off of Molina’s equipment for a wild pitch that allowed Dubon to advance to 3rd base. Yastrzemski ripped a 3-1 cutter towards Goldschmidt on a bounce close to the 1st base line. Goldschmidt bobbled the sharp grounder and it deflected to his right. But he stayed with it, chased it down and threw to Wainwright covering the bag to nip Yasztremski by a step at first to save a run and end the inning.

Lefty Andrew Suarez, just recalled from AAA this morning, came out to pitch the bottom of the 5th. After Fowler popped out to 1st in foul territory and Wong grounded out to 3rd, the Giants brought in righty Jandel Gustave to pitch to Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt swung and missed at a center-cut 97 mph fastball, striking out to end the inning. In the top of the 6th, Wainwright made quick work of Belt and Longoria, who hit the ball hard, but right at Cardinal defenders and were retired on a combined 3 pitches. Dickerson then skied a fastball to the gap in right center to the track. Both Bader and Fowler converged on the ball, with Bader running a great distance. Both players jumped for the ball and collided mid-air, but Fowler somehow came up with the catch. That play could have been a disaster on multiple levels, but it ended up working out.

Ozuna hit a ball hard up the middle to start the bottom of the 6th, but the Giants were lined up in a shift with the second baseman Dubon right there, who threw to first for the out. DeJong blooped a ball out towards left-center in no-man’s land that looked like it might drop, but SS Brandon Crawford caught the ball over his shoulder while drifting back. Molina flied out to right to end the inning.

Wainwright retired the Giants in order on 9 pitches in the top of the 7th, with a nice running catch from DeJong on a soft liner towards the middle on one play and Wong making a good charge and quick throw on Crawford’s grounder to end the inning. Righty Kyle Barraclough, a former Cardinal farmhand who just had his contract re-purchased by the Giants this morning after being outrighted earlier this season, came out to pitch the bottom of the 7th. Edman lined a center-cut fastball to the gap in left-center that rolled to the wall for a double. Harrison Bader looked at 2 fastballs down the middle for strikes then chased a slider that was almost in the dirt for strike 3. Matt Carpenter pinch hit for Wainwright. With a 1-0 count on Carpenter, Edman stole 3rd base. Carpenter then worked a 3-2 walk. Edmundo Sosa, just recalled this morning, ran for Carpenter. Fowler struck out looking at a low-and-away sinker on the corner. On the 1-1 pitch to Wong, Sosa stole 2nd base. Wong smoked a 2-1 hanging curveball towards the gap in right-center near the track. Giants’ CF Kevin Pillar raced towards the gap and made a Bader-style diving catch to rob Wong, most likely save 2 runs from scoring and end the inning.

Giovanny Gallegos came out to pitch the top of the 8th. Dubon skied a hanging high-and-inside slider into the 2nd deck in left field inside the foul pole for a solo HR to lead off the inning to cut the Cards’ lead to 3-1.

That was the 6th HR that Gallegos has allowed this year and the first career HR for the 25-year old rookie Dubon. Lefty Chris Shaw pinch hit for Barraclough and struck out swinging at a center-cut fastball. Shildt then brought Andrew Miller in to pitch to the lefty Yastrzemski. Miller has had 5 days of rest and did not pitch at all in the back-to-back doubleheader weekend. Giants manager Bruce Bochy countered with righty pinch hitter Austin Slater. Miller had Slater behind in the count 1-2, but walked him on a close 3-2 fastball that was a little too far inside. Miller fell behind the lefty Belt 3-1, but recovered to throw two good sliders—one that Belt missed, and the other that froze him for strike 3. Shildt then brought in Carlos Martinez for the 3rd day in a row to pitch to Longoria. He did only throw 13 pitches in Game 1 of the doubleheader yesterday and 7 pitches in Game 1 of the doubleheader on Saturday. Martinez got Longoria to chase a 3-2 slider outside of the zone for strike 3 to end the inning.

For the bottom of the 8th, Chris Shaw stayed in the game at 1B in the #9 spot. Austin Slater stayed in the game in RF in the #1 spot. Submarine-style righty Ty Rogers came in to pitch in the #2 spot, and he throws the ball almost underhanded, with his fastball topping out at about 82 mph.

Goldschmidt worked a 3-2 walk. Ozuna chopped a ball to 3rd for the 5-4 force, but he beat out the return throw to 1st. DeJong grounded a ball up softly up the middle. Dubon fielded it and flipped to Crawford coming across the diamond for a nifty play, but DeJong also beat out the return throw to 1st. Molina struck out to end the inning.

Martinez came back out for the top of the 9th to try for the 4-out save. Dickerson grounded to Goldschmidt at first, who flipped to Martinez covering the bag for the first out. Buster Posey chased a slider that was way outside to strike out for the second out. Pillar chopped a ball behind the 3rd base bag for Edman just inside the line, and he made a strong throw across the diamond to nip Pillar at first to end the game. Martinez picked up his 17th save.

Odds and Ends

The Seattle Mariners had a 1-0 lead over the Chicago Cubs to start the bottom of the 7th, but the Cubs scored 5 runs in the inning for the 5-1 victory. Matt Nisler walked Jason Heyward and Kris Bryant. Aaron Nola then gave up a run-scoring single to Jason Heyward, who advanced to 2nd on a throwing error by CF Jake Fraley. Albert Almora pinch hit for Robel Garcia with 1 out, and for some reason, an intentional walk of Almora was ordered to load the bases for Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber hit a bases clearing triple, and then scored on a fielder’s choice groundout by Addison Russell...Memphis lost their final game of the season to Iowa 9-6. Starter Chris Ellis gave up 7 H and 5 ER in 3 IP and reliever Bryan Dobzanski, just promoted from Springfield on August 28th, allowed another 3 ER in just .2 IP. The Redbirds did hit 4 HR in the game: Dylan Carlson hit a solo shot for his 5th with Memphis, John Nogowski and Jose “Not Cafecito” Martinez hit solo shots and Ramon Urias added a 2-run shot. Memphis finished at 69-71 on the season...Springfield lost their final game to Midland 11-6. Starter Johan Oviedo allowed 7 H, 7 ER and 5 BB in 4.1 IP and reliever Michael Baird gave up another 5 H and 4 ER in just 1.2 IP. Springfield finished at 60-80...Peoria also lost their final game of the season 5-2 to Clinton, to finish a dismal 54-85 on the year and in the basement of their division. Delvin Perez and Imeldo Diaz had 3 hits each...The final game of the season for State College ended in a 3-3 tie due to lightning ending the action after 8.5 innings. All the stats counted with no winning or losing pitcher and the game itself not affecting the standings. The Spikes finished the season 39-36. Johnson City will play Game 1 of the Appalachian League Championship tonight at home against the Burlington Royals, with Game 2 on the road tomorrow and Game 3 also on the road on September 4th if necessary. Burlington finally beat the Pulaski Yankees last night after 17 innings to earn the right to face Johnson City. 20-year old Julio Puello, a Dominican native, will take the mound tonight for the Rookie affiliate with his 3.77 SO/BB ratio.