Riley O'Brien was a strike away from preserving a Cardinals win over the White Sox on Saturday night. However, Randal Grichuk smashed a go-ahead two-run homer with two strikes and two outs to help the White Sox win 6-5 win. It was O'Brien's eighth blown save.
His teammates long gone from Busch Stadium while trying to forget yet another gut-punch of a loss, Cardinals’ closer Riley O’Brien trudged into a desolate clubhouse and barely made a sound while trying to explain how another game got away.
"It just gets a little harder after more and more bad ones," a crushed O’Brien said in a voice barely above a whisper.
For a third time this season, O’Brien had a foe down to their final strike only to see disaster strike repeatedly. This time around, former St. Louis outfielder Randal Grichuk was in a 1-2 hole with two outs in the ninth inning when he smacked an opposite-field, two-run homer that lifted the White Sox past the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
On a night when 40,387 fans came to celebrate the homer history of Albert Pujols and the lasting legacy of Yadier Molina, they were treated to some late-game heroics from Leo Bernal. The rookie catcher swatted a 421-foot, tiebreaking homer in the eighth in to put the Cardinals seemingly in position to capture their second straight victory.
However, as has often been the case over the second half of the season, O’Brien had trouble sealing the deal. Kyle Teel drew a leadoff walk and pinch-runner Brenton Doyle swiped second base to get into scoring position. Then, after striking out Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami, O’Brien got ahead of Grichuk. O’Brien’s 95.6 mph sinker was over the outer third of the plate, but Grichuk went with the pitch.
“It hurts because I just couldn’t put him away there,” said O’Brien, who dropped to 3-8 and 36 of 44 in save opportunities. “I absolutely executed the pitch, but it might not have been the right pitch. I’ll have to go back and look. I saw the location – it was on the outer corner and where I was trying to throw it, but maybe not the right pitch.”
The collapse was reminiscent of other instances this season where O’Brien suffered heartbreak with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning. Former San Diego slugger Nick Castellanos hit a two-strike homer in the ninth off O’Brien in a game the Padres won in 10 innings on May 10. Then, on Aug. 23, O’Brien squandered a 4-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning by giving up six runs – despite the Phillies facing their final strike three times. That rally that doomed the Cards was capped by Kyle Schwarber’s towering, walk-off homer off O’Brien.
An All-Star and tied for the National League lead in saves at 36 with Padres’ star closer Mason Miller, O’Brien has simultaneously enjoyed his finest season and been battered by some haymakers. Since pitching in the MLB All-Star Game, O’Brien has gone 0-5 with a 5.66 ERA and four blown saves in 16 tries.
“It's tough and it definitely hasn't been going well recently, but I just have to keep working," said O'Brien, who has struggled when opposing hitters have laid off his sweeper and basically made him a one-pitch hurler while seeking out his sinker.
