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Tonight’s game at Camden Yards pitted two great stories against each other on the mound. John Means — a 2019 All-Star who also has a no-hitter under his belt — made his first start since April of 2022. He’s been recovering from Tommy John Surgery for well over a year now. Adam Wainwright has been horrendous this season, but Uncle Charlie still has an opportunity to end his career on a high note by snagging wins 199 and 200 in September before he retires.
Here are the lineups for the Cardinals and Orioles in game two:
Cardinals:
- Lars Nootbaar, RF
- Tommy Edman, CF
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Nolan Arenado, 3B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Tyler O’Neill, LF
- Nolan Gorman, 2B
- Jordan Walker, DH
- Masyn Winn, SS
Adam Wainwright - SP
And the Orioles:
- Adley Rutschman, DH
- Gunnar Henderson, SS
- Anthony Santander, RF
- Ryan O’Hearn, 1B
- Cedric Mullins, CF
- Austin Hays, LF
- Adam Frazier, 2B
- Jordan Westburg, 3B
- James McCann, C
John Means - SP
Wainwright wasn’t perfect by any means, and he had to dance around quite a bit of traffic on the bases. But to his credit, he made big pitches in big spots, and got timely ground balls when they were desperately needed. The infield defense behind him mostly avoided mistakes, and Uncle Charlie was able to get through five.
Even when Wainwright left after five, the Cardinals only led by one and I figured the chances of this bullpen holding a one-run lead for four innings was about zero. Richie Palacios immediately padded that lead, but as it turns out, three runs would’ve won it anyway.
Wainwright should get three more chances to get number 200. He was the first Cardinal I ever got an autograph from, and I really, really hope he gets it.
1st Inning
Means’ first pitch of 2023 was a strike to Lars Nootbaar, and on the second pitch Noot flew out to left. Edman grounded out to Westburg at third base for out number two, and then Paul Goldschmidt opened the scoring with a towering solo home run, just out of the reach of Mullins into the bullpen beyond left field. Goldy’s 24th homer of the season traveled 401 feet and put the Cardinals on the board first. Nolan Arenado popped out in foul territory for the third out.
Wainwright got ahead of Rutschman 0-2 to start the game, and then threw him four straight balls to put him on base. He then walked Henderson on four pitches, putting two runners on with no outs. Wainwright struck out Anthony Santander looking with an 86 mph fastball at the knees for the first out, and O’Hearn grounded out to Goldschmidt at first for the second out — with both runners moving into scoring position. Cedric Mullins popped out behind home plate to end the first inning.
2nd Inning
Contreras and O’Neill each reached base with bloop singled to the outfield — Contreras to center and O’Neill to right. Gorman followed with a slow chopper to first base, and after some indecision from O’Hearn, he went to flip to first but Means wasn’t there in time. Gorman beat Means to the bag, and it was ruled a fielder’s choice. Gorman came up gimpy as he ran through the bag, however, and had to be removed from the game. Collectively, the Cardinals loaded the bases with their hardest hit ball being 73 mph.
Jordan Walker capped off an eight-pitch at bat with a sac fly to center field, scoring Contreras and making it 2-0 St. Louis.
Winn hit the ball hard, but flew out to Mullins in center for the second out. Nootbaar grounded out to second base to end the top of the second, with St. Louis up 2-0.
Hays popped out in foul territory and Frazier flew out to Richie Palacios (who subbed in for Gorman after the injury) in right field for the first two outs. Westburg singled up the middle to break things up, but James McCann grounded out to short to end the second.
3rd Inning
Tommy Edman flew out to right field, Paul Goldschmidt’s 106 mph line drive landed in Gunnar Henderson’s glove, and Arenado flew out to shallow left field.
Rutschman popped out to Winn at short for the first out. Henderson continued to torment the Cardinals this series, lining a base hit to left field that dropped just in front of a diving O’Neill. Henderson rounded first and stretched it into a double once he saw that O’Neill didn’t make the play, and slid in safely at second.
Santander grounded out to first for the second out, moving Henderson to third base. O’Hearn grounded out to second to end the third.
4th Inning
Contreras flew out to right and O’Neill flew out to the warning track in center for the first two outs of the inning. Palacios fell behind 0-2 against Means, but then the lefty left a fat curveball down the middle of the plate, and he popped it into the right field seats for his second home run of the season that made it 3-0 Cardinals and raised his season-long OPS to .854. Walker flew out to center field to end the top of the fourth.
Wainwright got Mullins to fly out to start th fourth, but then put himself in a tough spot. Hays and Fraizer each reached with hits, and Westburg loaded them up by reaching on Nolan Arenado’s ninth error of the season.
McCann fell behind 0-2 with the bases loaded, and then hit a ground ball to Winn at short. That turnd into an inning-ending double play, with Wainwright shouting and pumping his fists as he walked off the mound.
5th Inning
An easy 1-2-3 inning for Means — Winn grounded out, Nootbaar struck out looking, and Edman grounded out.
Rutschman drew a leadoff walk to start the fifth and advanced to third on Henderson’s fifth hit of the series. Santander got the Orioles on the board with a base hit to right field that Walker was able to cut off before it got to the wall, but Henderson advanced to third as well.
With runners on the corners and nobody out, O’Hearn hit a slow grounder to Edman at second, and they got the force out at second base — although they couldn’t turn the double play and another run scored to make it 3-2.
Mullins struck out for the second out, but Hays’ two-out double to left put pressure on Waino yet again, with two runners in scoring position.
With his pitch count climbing and clinging to a one-run lead, Wainwright struck out Frazier with a big looping curveball to end the inning and send this game to the sixth.
6th Inning
Jorge Lopez entered the game in the sixth after five solid innings from John Means and pitched a scoreless sixth. Goldschmidt struck out, Arenado flew out to right field, and Knizner (pinch-hitting for Contreras with the reason TBD) grounded out to second base.
Wainwright also exited after five innings, with Giovanny Gallegos being his first replacement. Gio got Westburg to fly out and struck out McCann to start the frame. Rutschman hit a slow ground ball towards third with two outs, but the Cardinal infield was pulled to the right a bit, and he was able to reach with an infield hit.
Oli Marmol went and got Gallegos, bringing in Matthew Liberatore to face the red-hot Gunnar Henderson. After getting ahead 0-2, he threw Henderson three balls to run it to 3-2 and then got him to fly out.
7th Inning
Lopez struck out O’Neill to start the seventh. Palacios stepped in and fell behind 0-2, fouled off a few, and then clobbered a 1-2 knuckle curve way back into the right field seats for his second homer of the game — in a game he didn’t even start! His second homer traveled 401 feet. It was his first multi-homer game of his career, and were just his second and third homers in the big leagues.
Walker drew a one-out walk, and Winn grounded out to second base, moving Walker into scoring position. Brandon Hyde went and pulled Lopez, opting to go with left-hander Cionel Perez against the left-handed hitting Nootbaar.
Nootbaar won the battle anyway, ripping a base hit to right field on the seventh pitch from Perez, driving in Walker and making it 5-2 Cardinals. Edman grounded out for the third out right after.
Liberatore came back out for the seventh and Santander rocked a double off the top of the tall wall in right field to start the inning. He walked Mountcastle to bring the potential tying run to the plate, but Mullins grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, started by Edman over at second base. Liberatore got Hays to hit a high pop up on the infield that he caught himself to end the inning, with St. Louis still up 5-2.
8th Inning
Baltimore brought in former Oakland A’s lefty Cole Irvin in the eighth to face themiddle of the Cardinals order. He struck out Goldschmidt looking for the first out, got Arenado to ground out, and got Knizner to pop out on the infield.
Lefty John King took the mound in the bottom of the eighth and got Urias to ground out before handing out a one-out walk to Westburg. But McCann grounded into another inning-ending double play — the second time he’d done that in the game.
9th Inning
Irvin came back out for the ninth and got two quick groundouts from O’Neill and Palacious, followed by back-to-back ground ball base hits from Walker and Winn. Nootbaar got ahead 3-0, fouled off a few pitches, and eventually flew out to center field.
Ryan Helsley entered the game in the bottom of the ninth, tasked with putting a stamp on Wainwright’s 199th win. A line out, a fly out, and a pop out. Helsley threw seven pitches and Waino got number 199.
FINAL: Cardinals 5, Orioles 2
Up Next
St. Louis (64-81) still has an opportunity for a series win if they can knock off Baltimore (91-53) tomorrow night at Camden Yards. Drew Rom (0-2, 7.79 ERA) will face the team that drafted him. Kyle Gibson (14-8, 5.12) will throw for Baltimore. First pitch is set for 5:35 p.m. once again.
Around the Central
Pirates 5, Nationals 1
Reds 5, Tigers 5 - BOT 8
Brewers 2, Marlins 1 - TOP 7
Cubs 2, Rockies 0 - TOP 3
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