Sunday’s Game Report: Cardinals 14, Yankees 7
By Rob Rains
As he spent most of this season at Triple A Memphis, Jordan Walker was searching for what the Cardinals have been looking for all year as well – being able to do damage on offense.
Walker’s quest and that of the Cardinals arrived at the same time and place on Sunday at Yankee Stadium in New York.
Walker had a career-high five hits, including his first major-league home run of the season, to lead a 21-hit attack that featured six doubles, three homers and a season-high 14 runs as the Cardinals won for the second time in three games against the first-place Yankees.
Walker scored four runs, drove in three and added his first stolen base of the year as well.
Lars Nootbaar had perhaps the biggest hit of the day, a bases-loaded double in a five-run seventh inning after the Yankees had rallied from a 7-2 deficit to tie the game 7-7 in the sixth. Nootbaar added a two-run homer in the ninth to record a career-high five RBIs.
Every Cardinal had at least one hit and eight scored at least one run.
Walker, recalled by the Cardinals on Friday, became the first Cardinal with a five-hit game since Matt Carpenter in 2018 and the first player 22 years old or younger with a five-hit day for the Cardinals since Stan Musial also did it when he was 22 on July 21, 1943.
Here is how Sunday’s game broke down:
At the plate: The 21 hits for the Cardinals were their most in a game in exactly four years; they had 23 on Sept. 1, 2020 at Cincinnati … Luken Baker hit the other home run for the Cardinals as part of a four-run fourth inning … Brendan Donovan,Paul Goldschmidt and Nootbaar all had three hits in the game while Masyn Winn had two hits, including a two-run double … The Cardinals went 8-of-18 with a runner in scoring position and for the three-game series were a combined 15-of-30 in those situations … Goldschmidt was 7-of-11 in the series with four doubles, including two on Sunday … The sixth through ninth-place hitters in the lineup – Donovan, Walker, Nootbaar and Victor Scott II – were a combined 12-of-20 with nine RBIs and 10 runs scored.
On the mound: Staked to the early lead, Miles Mikolas could not get through the fifth inning. He failed to retire any of the five batters he faced in that inning, allowing four hits with the other runner reaching on an error. He allowed five runs in four innings-plus of work … John King finally got out of that inning, but Riley O’Brien allowed two runners he inherited from King to score in the sixth when the Yankees tied the game … JoJo Romero, Andrew Kittredge and Ryan Fernandez allowed only one hit combined over the final 3 1/3 innings.
Key stat: Cardinals pitchers held likely AL MVP Aaron Judge to just one hit, a single, in 12 at-bats in the series and struck him out seven times, including three times on Sunday.
Worth noting: The Cardinals activated Steven Matz and Michael Siani from the injured list as rosters expanded to 28 players although Siani was traveling from his rehab assignment with Springfield and will meet the team on Monday in Milwaukee … Lance Lynn made a rehab start for Memphis at Iowa and gave up five runs, all in the second inning, as he threw 80 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, striking out eight … Thomas Saggese hit his 20th home run of the season for the Redbirds … The Cardinals had not scored more than 11 runs in a game this season and their previous high for hits had been 15.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals on Monday will be in Milwaukee to open a three-game series against the division-leading Brewers. Andre Pallante is the scheduled starter in the 1:10 p.m. game.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
