Cardinals give away runs, give away bases and, ultimately, give away game
ST. LOUIS -- Getting beat is bad enough. Giving away a game is even worse, especially in September.
But the Cardinals handed the Brewers enough Tuesday night to allow them to take a 3-2 victory in 12 innings at Busch Stadium.
Here's how:
The Cardinals led 2-1 in the ninth when Trevor Rosenthal walked the leadoff batter, Jonathan Lucroy, and he came around to score the tying run on a sacrifice fly. In 69 outings, it was the 28th time that Rosenthal has allowed the first batter he's faced to reach base via a hit or walk.
"Any time you walk that first batter, he's trouble," Yadier Molina said in a quiet clubhouse.
With the score still 2-2 in the 12th, lefty Kevin Siegrist issued a one-out walk to Carlos Gomez. Siegrist then compounded the problem with a slow delivery to the plate that allowed Gomez to steal second and third base. Gomez scored the winning run with one out on a well-placed pop single to right field that dropped just feet away from first baseman Matt Adams and second baseman Daniel Descalso. But if Carlos Gomez had not been given two bases, he would not have had much of a chance to score on the play.
"We've got to try and give Yadi a chance there," manager Mike Matheny said. "The bigger issue is giving a free base to get the inning going."
Making the night even more frustrating was the Cardinals' inability to break open the game when given a chance in the first inning. They started with singles by Matt Carpenter, Jon Jay and Matt Holliday to load the bases for Adams. He worked a walk to bring in one run but then Jhonny Peralta hit into a double play and Molina grounded out.
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Being limited to two runs in the first would prove to be costly when the Cardinals put only one more runner in scoring position over the final 11 inings.
"That (first inning) was part of the story," Matheny said. "We gave some free bases, too, and that's the rest of the story."
Coupled with a victory by the second-place Pirates, the Cardinals' lead was trimmed to 2 1/2 games in the NL Central and their magic number to clinch the division stayed at 10.
3 UP
-- Lance Lynn. He didn't hurt his bid to start Game 1 of the postseason with another high-quality outing. Lynn gave up a 382-foot homer to Gerardo Parra -- just the second he has allowed at Busch this season -- but that was the only run he allowed in seven innings. He walked one and allowed only one other runner as far as second base. Over his past 14 starts, Lynn's ERA is 1.89.
-- Seventh inning. Lynn was at 97 pitches after the sixth, but the Brewers didn't try to run up his pitch count in the seventh. He needed only four pitches to get three outs, which put him in position to go out for the eighth inning. Parra flied to left on the first pitch he saw, Matt Clark fouled out to third after taking a ball and Jean Segura popped to second on the fourth pitch of the inning.
-- Peter Bourjos. Back in the starting lineup for only the second time in the past week, Bourjos collected two hits and showed off his speed on a couple of plays. The first time did not turn out well as he tried to turn a routine single to right into a double and though he made it close, he was out. His second hit came when he grounded routinely to short but when Segura took a bit too long to get the ball out of his glove, Bourjos had an infield single.
3 DOWN
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-- Trevor Rosenthal. The leadoff walk that turned into a two-out run to tie the game resulted in the sixth blown save for the Cardinals' closer. After walking Lucroy, Aramis Ramirez doubled to put Brewers on second and third with no outs. After a groundout and an intentional walk, rookie Clark hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored the tying run. Rosenthal had converted all five of his save chances against the Brewers this season and had not allowed a run against them since last May.
-- Hitting Wily Peralta. The Cardinals should not be disappointed they won't be facing Wily Peralta again, at least in the regular season. He made five starts against them, won three and pitched well enough to win them all. In this one, he quickly settled in after allowing the first four Cardinals to reach. He faced the minimum in the final six innings he worked and did not allow an extra-base hit all night. Wily Peralta (16-11) finished the season with a 2.18 ERA against the Cardinals.
-- Jhonny Peralta with the bases loaded. With three on and no outs in the first, Peralta had a chance to bust the game open. But he swung at a first-pitch fastball that appeared inside and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play that brought in a run but squelched a potential big inning. It dropped his average with the bases loaded to .133 (2 for 15).
You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter @StanMcNeal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.
