Diamondbacks Snakebitten By Late Cardinals Magic

Walker and Liberatore shine as the Cards take the series over Arizona

A 1-1 pitcher’s duel turned topsy turvy late in Saturday afternoon’s game at Busch Stadium as the Cardinals and Diamondbacks combined to score nine runs after the seventh inning stretch.

Matthew Liberatore threw seven innings of one-run ball as St. Louis (29-23) rallied to beat Arizona (26-26) 6-5. Liberatore allowed six hits, struck out four, and while he didn’t walk anyone, he did hit Ketel Marte in the third.

Jordan Walker drove in three total runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Walker had a two-run single in the seventh to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead, and then hit what proved to be the game-winning single in the eighth.

St. Louis struck first, pushing a run across in the first inning. The Cards strung together three consecutive hits off of Merrill Kelly: Masyn Winn made his only hit of the afternoon count and reached base by way of an infield single. Winn then went first to third following a Brandon Donovan single. Iván Herrera drove Winn home after an eight-pitch at bat and battled back from opening down 0-2 in the count. Herrera worked the count to 2-2, fouled off three pitches, before finally lining a ball to centerfield.

For a while the one run seemed like it would be enough as Liberatore threw up zeros in the first four innings, but Randall Grichuk led off the fifth inning with a solo shot to left field and tied the game at 1-1.

After getting roughed up in the first, Kelly settled in and retired 12 straight Cards, but St. Louis broke through in the seventh. It started when Alec Burleson singled to right, and Nolan Arrenado earned a walk after a 10-pitch at-bat. With runners on first and second and no outs, Walker drove both home with a double that reached the left field wall.

St. Louis smallball-ed their way to a fourth run, using a pair of groundouts to bring Walker home and make it a 4-1 game.

Leading by three and needing six outs to wrap things up, St. Louis turned to Kyle Leahy, but Arizona was able to tee off on him. Leahy allowed three of the four batters he faced to reach base, and the only out he recorded was a sac fly to cut the Cardinal lead down to 4-2. Leahy handed the ball to Steven Matz, who immediately surrendered a game-tying triple to Josh Naylor, and then Grichuk struck again for a go-ahead double.

The thing about these Arizona Diamondbacks is that they tend to come up on the wrong side of one-run games and that played out again Saturday. They are now 8-10 in one-run games after Justin Martinez gave up two hits, two runs, and issued a walk in the chaotic eighth inning.

Arrenado tied the game with a run-scoring groundout that brought home Herrera, and then Walker came through for the second time in as many innings with a game-changing base hit to center field that scored Burleson.

Leading 6-5 Ryan Helsely took the mound, and the chaos from the eighth inning seeped into the ninth. Helsely immediately surrendered a single to the pinch hitting Pavin Smith, who turned around Helsely’s 101 MPH fast ball to right field. Helsley struck out Marte for the first out of the inning, but put a second base runner on when he walked Geraldo Perdomo. Smith and Perdomo both moved up 90 feet thanks to a Lourdes Gurriel groundout, but Helsley was able to K Eugenio Suárez to end the game and pick up his second win of the season.

St. Louis will try to complete the sweep over Arizona tomorrow afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1:15 P.M. Sonny Gray is set to take on Brandon Pfaadt, who leads the Major Leagues with seven wins so far this season.