Cardinals 3 Blue Jays 4 (11 innings)
We should start this by acknowledging the three amazing plays Vladimir Guerrero made in the field today:
- Playing third base, with a runner on third, a ground ball to Vlad, and he sees the runner on third is off the bag, he gets between him and the bag, tags him for the out (while still on the ground) and throws from his knees to first, and would have had the double play, but Spencer Horwitz couldn’t come up up with the short hop.
- Then, in the ninth, playing first base, with the go-ahead run on second, Vlad dives to his right to get a ground ball and makes a great flip to Tommy Nance covering first.
- In the tenth, go-ahead run on third, two out, 98.9 mph ground that actually got past Vlad, but he snagged it and made a long perfect throw to Brendon Little covering first. Good work by Little to go to first.
There were other great defensive plays:
- Will made a diving stop on a grounder to his left and threw to second to start a double play.
- In the first inning, with Kevin Gausman having troubles, bases loaded, ground ball to right, and Addison Barger made a terrific throw to second to get a force out (a run scored, but it was a terrific play).
- And Gausman had a hard-hit liner that he snagged with almost no time to move. The ball was hit at 96.1 mph. I’d love to be able to do the math to come up with the reaction time.
Anyway….
Gausman had a tough/unlucky first inning. He gave up singles to the first three batters. None of them were all that hard hit. One was a pop fly to center that wasn’t hit hard enough for Joey Loperfido to get to. The next batter hit a similar pop fly that was too short for Loperfido to get to, scoring one. A strikeout, the groundout force to Barger (mentioned above) scored the second run, and a pop-out ended the inning.
After that, Gausman was very good. In total, seven innings, nine hits, two earned, two walks and three strikeouts. And he hit 99 with his fastball, better than we’ve seen all season.
He left with a 3-2 lead.
- Genesis Cabrera pitched the eighth and gave up a home run that tied the game. I’m wondering if he is overworked.
- Tommy Nance pitched the ninth and got through with the help of a great play by Vlad.
- Brendon Little started the tenth with a runner on second, who he managed to strand with the help of another great play by Vlad.
- Erik Swanson, starting the eleventh with the runner on second, kept it a tie game again.
We got three runs in the fourth:
- George Springer walked and stole season.
- Nathan Lukes singled to give us runners on the corners.
- Vlad doubled off the left-center field wall (just a couple of feet short of a home run), bringing in one.
- Spencer Horwitz hit a sac fly.
- Alejandro Kirk lined a single to right to bring in two.
We wouldn’t score again until the eleventh.
With Nathan Lukes on second, the Cardinals intentionally walked Vlad. Then Leo Jimenez put down a great bunt, which catcher Pedro Pages slipped a bit on the throw, allowing Leo to beat it out. Bases loaded, no outs. Will Wagner had a ten-pitch at-bat and then ground one hard, but right at the second baseman (playing in), for an easy force.
Kirk hit a deep fly ball, over the outfield (playing shallow) to bring in the winning run.
We had ten hits. Kirk was the only Jay with two hits. Everyone else in the starting lineup, including Jimenez (who came in as a pinch-runner), had one hit, except for Loperfido.
Jays of the Game: Kirk (2 for 5, 2 RBI) (FanGraphs isn’t updating for that game-winning hit), Swanson (.309 WPA), Little (.309), Gausman (.203), Nance (.135), Jimenez (.122, for the bunt), Vlad (.084, plus all the defense)
Other Award: Loperfido (-.202, 0 for 4, k), Lukes (-.181, 1 for 5, k), Cabrera (-.145). Wagner had a -.201, mostly for the ground out in the 11th, but that doesn’t include his defense.
We have a 3:00 Eastern start tomorrow. Jose Berrios (15-9, 3.52) vs. Kyle Gibson (8-6, 4.20).