Quinn Mathews gave the St. Louis Cardinals a strong effort even though the first two innings were a little rough. The big question mark for the St. Louis Cardinals would be when or if the bats would wake up. That would ultimately decide Tuesday night’s contest against the Giants.
Quinn Mathews gave up a home run in the first and second inning, but both were solo shots. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Bryce Eldridge launched a 389 foot shot to the opposite field in left for a 1-0 Giants lead.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, it was Christian Koss who turned on a 91 mph four-seam Mathews fastball and send it 373 feet over the left field wall for a 2-0 San Francisco lead.
That was all Quinn Mathews allowed the Giants for the first 6 innings. 99 pitches thrown, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks and 2 earned runs. He kept St. Louis in the game.
Where was that Cardinals offense? Landen Roupp, the starter for the Giants didn’t give them much. It wasn’t like St. Louis didn’t have a few opportunities. Two walks and a single loaded the bases in the top of the 3rd inning, but Jordan Walker grounded out scoring no one. In the top of the 6th inning, the Giants tried to help the Cardinals cause as Ivan Herrera reached on an error to start the inning followed by a walk to Alec Burleson, but Jordan Walker grounded into a double play that killed a potential rally. Thomas Saggese continued his hitting streak with a single up the middle in the top of the 7th inning and advanced to scoring position on a Masyn Winn groundout, but didn’t score as Nathan Church grounded out to end the inning.
Gordon Graceffo took over in the bottom of the 7th inning in relief of Quinn Mathews. His first inning was a carnival of chaos that at least had a happy ending. Gordon walked McCray followed by a single from Koss. Cox tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but a charging Thomas Saggese decided to try and go for the force-out at third and failed as the ball hit Masyn Winn’s glove at third and trickled away which resulted in the bases loaded with no outs and the dangerous Rafael Devers coming up. Graceffo struck him out with a nasty 95 mph four-seam fastball that he threw by him. He then performed and encore and struck out the also-dangerous Bryce Eldridge for the second out. The Giants sent up Jung Hoo Lee as the pinch-hitter who rarely strikes out. He didn’t strike out, but Gordon was able to get him to fly out to end the Giants bottom of the 7th.
The Cardinals threatened again in the top of the 8th inning as Bryan Torres drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later, Alec Burleson walked giving St. Louis the potential tying runs on base and Jordan Walker coming up yet again with a chance to do damage and get the Cardinals back in the game. He flew out harmlessly to right for the second out. Leo Bernal was the next Cardinal with a bat with the opportunity to turn the game around. His strikeout turned into a bases-loaded opportunity as the ball got away from Giants catcher and former Cardinal Andrew Knizner and he got tangled up and was unable to put much steam on the throw to first as Bernal beat it out. The Giants went to the bullpen to bring in Joel Kuhnel to face Joshua Baez. He flew out to center to end the Cardinals 8th. If St. Louis had a nickel for every runner in scoring position that was stranded Tuesday night, well…they’d have a lot of nickels.
Gordon Graceffo was tasked with keeping the Giants quiet in the bottom of the 8th to give the Cardinals a reasonable chance to do something special in the 9th. He was successful limiting San Francisco to two groundouts and a pop-out. The big question mark would remain the offense. Could St. Louis do anything in the 9th?
The Cardinals 9th would start with Thomas Saggese. He grounded out sharply to Koss at short for the first out. Masyn Winn was up next for St. Louis. He flew out to right center for the second out. Nathan Church slapped a single to left to bring up the potential tying run in the form of Bryan Torres. Church took second which the Giants didn’t contest, but perhaps they should have as Torres singled to right which scored Church and reduced the Giants lead to just 1. Manager Oli Marmol sent Victor Scott II in to pinch-run for Torres with the mission to get into scoring position. He was successful as he stole second with Ivan Herrera as the potential go-ahead run at the plate. Sadly, he (stop me if you’ve heard me say this before) grounded out to end the game. Final score: Giants 2, Cardinals 1.
The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up their west coast swing with a matinee game Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco against the Giants. Andre Pallante gets the start for the Cardinals while it will be RHP Blade Tidwell starting for the Giants. First pitch scheduled for 2:45pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.