Cardinals Take Game One, Drop Nightcap vs Yankees

Today was definitely a weird day of baseball. The Cardinals took the first game of the doubleheader, busting out for 11 runs against the Bronx Bombers. Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run to put them ahead 3-0 and Nolan Gorman even supplied some power.

Jack Flaherty looked like his old self, throwing six shutout innings and earning his fifth win of the year. Then the rain came, multiple times. I heard Chip and Brad say on the Bally broadcast that it was because of MLB rules that the rest of the first game wasn’t waved off.

Apparently, they would have had to postpone the nightcap as well. I think that’s weird.

Drew VerHagen looked horrible in the ninth inning, and I found myself screaming at the TV for the umpire to just call strikes or for the Yankees to swing just to get the first game over with.

In this recap, we’ll discuss one major takeaway from each game of the doubleheader.

Captain Jack

Jack Flaherty really put the Cardinals on his back today. And it was just one of those games that the Cardinals really needed to potentially lift their spirits. I had the luxury of switching between the Bally broadcast and the FS1 broadcast.

Dontrelle Willis was saying that in order for the Cardinals to turn things around, they’ll need Flaherty to be his 2019 self. And he certainly was today, striking out four batters while walking just two and allowing only four hits.

Game two of the twin bill did not go according to plan, as the Yankees earned their first win at Busch since May of 2014. Matthew Liberatore once again proved why he is not a starting pitcher and should not be in the rotation. He had a few good games, but it’s time to try something different.

He only struck out one batter and allowed three runs over just 4.1 innings, earning the loss as his ERA climbed to 5.68 on the year.

Fortunately, Dakota Hudson looked good in his return, allowing just one hit over 2.2 innings of relief. Chris Stratton fell apart in the ninth and Andre Pallante couldn’t bail him out.

Offense Goes Quiet After Outburst

The Cardinals once again committed the sin of omission as they failed to follow up their 11-run outburst with more fireworks. What makes it even more frustrating to me however is that after absolutely torching Luis Severino, the Cards couldn’t solve the Yankees taxed bullpen.

The biggest moment in the game was in the bottom of the third, when the Cardinals had the bases loaded with two outs, down by just a run. Paul DeJong grounded into a force out and the threat was through. The bats were quiet from there.

The Cardinals will hope to solve Gerrit Cole tomorrow in the series finale.