Wednesday’s Game Report: Giants 4, Cardinals 3
By Rob Rains
The Cardinals hopes of keeping their slim postseason hopes alive were extinguished on Wednesday night with a loss to the Giants in San Francisco.
Former Cardinal Andrew Knizner’s RBI triple in the eighth inning broke a 3-3 tie and officially eliminated the Cardinals from the race for the third wild-card spot. It’s the third consecutive year the Cardinals failed to advance to the postseason.
Knizner’s triple followed an infield single and came on a liner to short center field. Victor Scott II dove for the ball but missed it, and it rolled all the way to the wall.
Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly had tied the game for the Cardinals in the top of the eighth, following a single by Ivan Herrera and a double from Alec Burleson.
The loss left the Cardinals 3 ½ games behind the Mets with just three games left in the regular season. They will have to sweep the Cubs to finish the season at .500.
Here is how Wednesday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: A two-out single by Scott II, a double from Brendan Donovan and a single by Herrera gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the third inning … They had only one hit over the next four innings and trailed 3-2 before Herrera’s one-out single in the eighth. He went to third on Burleson’s double and scored on Arenado’s sacrifice fly. Lars Nootbaar then walked, but Burleson was left on third when Thomas Saggese struck out … Pedro Pages led off the ninth with a single but Jordan Walker grounded into a double play and pinch-hitter Jose Fermin grounded out attempting to bunt to end the game.
On the mound: Sonny Gray worked six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. One of the runs was unearned as the Cardinals committed three errors … Kyle Leahy worked around two singles in the seventh but Riley O’Brien could not keep the game tied in the eighth.
Key stat: Gray reached the 200 strikeout mark for the second season in a row. He is only the fourth Cardinal pitcher to reach that mark in back-to-back seasons, joining Bob Gibson, Adam Wainwright and Jose DeLeon.
Worth noting: The Cardinals were trying to sweep the Giants in San Francisco for the first time since 1991 … The Double A Springfield Cardinals won the Texas League championship on Wednesday night, getting 19 hits in a 13-1 blowout win at Midland to win the championship series two games to one. Jon Jon Gazdar and Zach Levinson each had four hits and Dakota Harris drove in four runs for the Cardinals, who won the league title for the first time since 2012.
Up next: After a day off on Thursday, the Cardinals will finish the season with the three games against the Cubs at Wrigley Field this weekend. Miles Mikolas will start the opener on Friday.
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