Luken Baker’s first career home run the lone bright spot in Cardinals’ embarrassing loss to Phillies

With the way the pitching matchups stacked up in this series against the Phillies, it sure seemed like if St. Louis didn’t get the win in game one against Christopher Sanchez, that they’d be staring down the barrel of a three-game sweep. The Cardinals did not, in fact, win game one, meaning that they’d need to pull off a win against one of Zack Wheeler or Aaron Nola to escape Philly with a win.

Here are the starting lineups for the Cardinals and Phillies Saturday night:

Cardinals:

1. Tommy Edman, 2B
2. Alec Burleson, RF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Nolan Gorman, 3B
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Tyler O’Neill, LF
7. Richie Palacios, CF
8. Luken Baker, DH
9. Masyn Winn, SS

Dakota Hudson - SP

And the Phillies:

1. Kyle Schwarber, LF
2. Trea Turner, SS
3. Bryce Harper, DH
4. Nick Castellanos, RF
5. Bryston Stott, 2B
6. Alec Bohm, 3B
7. J.T. Realmuto, C
8. Brandon Marsh, CF
9. Jake Cave, 1B

Zack Wheeler - SP

And unfortunately, Dakota Hudson pitched to the highest possible form of himself, walking five batters, striking out one, and giving up five runs. Zack Wheeler, on the other hand, probably would’ve finished off a complete game for the Phillies had his team not put up a dozen runs and made it look foolish to do so. He was pulled in the eighth, although he’d only thrown 80 pitches and yet still struck out 10 Cardinals.

Luken Baker finally connected on his first MLB homer, but that was the only bright spot in an otherwise embarrassing loss Saturday evening.

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1st Inning

Wheeler began his dominant outing with an easy first inning, striking out Edman and Goldschmidt with an Alec Burleson flyout wedged in the middle.

Hudson began the day by walking Schwarber. After Turner flew out, Hudson walked Harper on four pitches as well. However, he got Castellanos to swing at the first pitch of the at bat and ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, started by Winn at shortstop.

2nd Inning

Wheeler struck out Gorman, Contreras, and O’Neill. That’s five punchouts over the first two innings for the Phillies’ righty.

Hudson got Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm to both ground out, followed by a flyout from Realmuto.

3rd Inning

Richie Palcios struck out hacking at a 2-2 curveball, which made it five consecutive strikeouts for Zack Wheeler. Luken Baker stepped in next and broke up Wheeler’s early dominance, turning on an inside curveball that wasn’t even a strike and belted it into the left field seats for his first major league home run. It carried 386 feet, and was thrown back onto the field by a Phillie fan, so Luken will definitely get that ball back later.

After a Masyn Winn groudout for out number two, Tommy Edman reached on an infield single that chopped high over Wheeler’s head behind the mound. Alec Burleson flew out to the warning track in left field for the third out.

The Phillies didn’t waste any time getting that run back, and then some. Brandon Marsh and led it off with a single the other way into left field. Hudson walked both Jake Cave and Kyle Schwarber to load the bases with nobody out. The super speedy Trea Turner grounded into a 6-4-3 double play started by Winn, but it scored a run to tie things up, 1-1.

Harper stepped in with a runner on third still and ripped a shoelace-high slider 106 mph into right field for a base hit, scoring Cave to put the Phillies up 2-1.

Castellanos flew out to right field to end the third.

4th Inning

Goldschmidt grounded out to short, Gorman struck out swinging, and Contreras popped out in foul territory.

Bryson Stott led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo homer into right-center field, putting the Phillies up 3-1 and tying the Philadelphia single-month record for home runs as a team (46). It was Stott’s 13th homer of the season.

Hudson got three outs after the homer, striking out Bohm, getting Realmuto to fly out to left field (on a really nice diving play by O’Neill), and getting Marsh to ground out to third base.

5th Inning

The Cardinals showed no fight against Wheeler, going down in order in the fifth inning, too. O’Neill struck out, Palacios grounded out to second, and Luken Baker struck out.

Cave and Schwarber both grounded out to start the bottom of the fifth, followed by a ground ball double down into the left field corner by Trea Turner. Harper stepped in and once again ripped a pitch off the shoetops into right field for a single, scoring Turner and making it 4-1 Philadelphia. That was two consecutive at-bats where Harper took a pitch that was out of the zone by quite a bit and turned it into another run for the Phillies. Harper tried to stretch the base hit into a double, but was thrown out at second base by Burleson.

6th Inning

Winn and Edman each flew out to left field, followed by a two-pitch groundout by Burleson.

Hudson remained in the game to eat innings, and Castellanos popped a high fly ball to right field that bounced off the very top of the wall, missing a homer by a foot. It rolled back into right field and Palacious ran it down, holding Castellanos to a double.

Stott grounded out to move Castellanos to third base, and Bohm drove him in with a sac fly to center field, making it 5-1 Philadelphia. Hudon walked Realmuto with two outs, and with his pitch count at 105, Oli Marmol pulled the plug.

Andre Pallante entered the game and got Brandon Marsh to ground out to end the sixth inning.

Hudson’s final line: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 1 K (105 pitches)

7th Inning

Wheeler continued to mow down the Cardinals, setting down all three batters to make it 13 in a row. Goldschmidt grounded out to short, Gorman struck out for the third time in three at bats, and Contreras grounded out softly, right back to Wheeler.

Jake Cave grounded out to Winn to start the inning, followed by a one-out double from Schwarber down into the left field corner. Trea Turner blooped a single (68 mph) into left field over the head of Winn, scoring Schwarber and making it 6-1 Phillies.

After Turner put the Phillies up five, Harper stepped in and ripped a 113 mph laser beam on the ground, just to the right of Winn. The ball took two bounces and then popped off Winn’s mitt, flying into left field. The official scorer ruled it a double, as Harper raced around the bases getting two bags on a ball hit on the ground, right at Winn.

Marmol pulled Pallante at this point, bringing in Giovanny Gallegos. The first batter he faced was Castellanos, who promptly deposited Gallegos’ 2-2 slider into the left field seats for a three-run homer, making it 9-1 Phillies. On the day Bob Barker passed away, Castellanos went yard with a deep drive to left.

If you know, you know.

Stott singled to center field with one out, making it five consecutive hits for the Phillies. Gallegos walked Bohm to put two runners on. Realmuto flew out to center for the second out, and then Brandon Marsh drilled a three-run shot to right-center field off Gallegos to make it 12-1 Phillies in the seventh. Philadelphia scored seven runs in the seventh inning.

Neither Pallante nor Gallegos were able to get out of the seventh, so it was left-hander Andrew Suarez tasked with getting out of the nightmare inning. He walked Cave with two outs, but got pinch-hitter Johan Rojas to fly out to right field to finally end the horrendous inning.

8th Inning

Despite leading by 11 runs, Wheeler went back out for the 8th inning. O’Neill ripped a 106 mph line drive to left field for a single, and the Phillies pulled Wheeler. His pitch count was only 80, but there’s no point leaving him in with an 11-run lead and risk an injury.

Left-hander Gregory Sotos took over, and Richie Palacios grounded into what initially was ruled a 4-3 double play. Second baseman Rodolfo Castro tagged O’Neill running to second and then threw to first, but replay review actually showed that Castro removed the ball from his glove and tagged O’Neill with an empty glove. Additionally, Palacios barely beat the throw to first. So instead of two outs and nobody on, the Cardinals had two runners on and nobody out for Luken Baker.

Baker hit the ball off the mound and directly to Castro at second, grounding into a 4-6-3 double play. Winn flew out to center field to end the top of the eighth.

Suarez pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth. Castro struck out, Harper grounded out to first, and Castellanos struck out.

Wheeler’s final line: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K’s (80 pitches)

9th Inning

Dylan Covey pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close it out for the Phillies. Edman grounded out to second, Burleson flew out to center, and Taylor Motter struck out swinging.

FINAL: Phillies 12, Luken Baker 1

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Up Next

The Cardinals (56-74) will try to avoid being swept by the Phillies (71-58) tomorrow afternoon at Citizns Bank Park. Drew Rom (0-1, 14.73 ERA) makes his second career start after getting obliterated by the Pirates (six earned runs on 12 combined baserunners) earlier this week in his first start. Aaron Nola (11-8, 4.49 ERA) will throw for the Phillies. First pitch is set for 12:35 p.m.

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Around the Central

D-Backs 4, Reds 1 - TOP 6

Cubs 8, Pirates 6 - TOP 9

Brewers 5, Padres 4

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Today’s Immaculate Grid

Immaculate Grid #146 - 8/9
Rarity - 251