With the Cardinals wrapping up their longest road trip of the season -- three cities, 11 games and 10 days -- here is a look back at history made by Joshua Báez in Chicago, a near collapse in Cincinnati, two starter injuries and a stomach-turning finish in Philadelphia.
The Cardinals’ longest, most grueling road trip of the season is finally behind them, and assuredly not a second too soon in their eyes considering the toll it took on the short-handed squad over the past 10 days.
What had the makings of a 6-5 trip that kept the Cardinals in the chase for a Wild Card slot devolved into a forgettable 5-6 trip in a confounding stretch of five batters on Sunday in Philadelphia. Up 4-0 with two outs in the ninth, the Cardinals had a 99.6% percent chance to lock up a feel-good victory before flying back to St. Louis for a much-needed day off. As hit by hit piled up, culminating in Kyle Schwarber’s 459-foot blast over the batter’s eye in center field, and the Cards were left looking for answers following a 6-4 loss and a collapse of epic proportions.
And it wasn’t even the moment with the most historic significance on a trip filled with incredible highs and devastating lows. Here is a look back at the three-city, 11-game, 10-day road trip that was for the Cards.
Friday, Aug. 14 (Cubs 3, Cards 0): Matthew Liberatore was perfect for 4 1/3 innings and took a shutout into the sixth inning before encountering trouble and giving way to reliever George Soriano. The reliever’s fourth pitch was hit in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field by Seiya Suzuki for a three-run homer.
Saturday, Aug. 15 (Cards 8, Cubs 4): In the first game of his big-league career, Joshua Báez put on a show in the greatest MLB debut in the history of the game. Báez drilled the first pitch he saw 449 feet for a homer that nearly went out of Wrigley Field. In his second at bat, he worked the count from 0-2 to 3-2 and hit a line-drive laser into the left-field bleachers for a solo shot. That made him just the third player in history to homer in his first two at bats.
Two innings later, Báez did the unthinkable by going with a slider on the outside corner and driving it over the wall in right-center for a third homer in three MLB at bats. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound slugger had a shot at fourth straight homer in the seventh inning, but he lined out to left field – something that drew a raucous ovation from the Wrigley Field faithful.
Sunday, Aug. 16 (Cards 11, Cubs 4): Alec Burleson (homer run, four RBI) and Jordan Walker (home run, four RBI) did all the heavy lifting in this romp.
Báez’s encore: 0 for 5 with three strikeouts.
Monday, Aug. 17 (Game 1 – Cards 2, Reds 1): Burleson drove in two in the first inning and rookie Quinn Mathews and five relievers made it stand up.
Monday, Aug. 17 (Game 2 – Reds 6, Reds 5): Andre Pallante, a 12-game winner on the season, allowed a season-most 10 hits and was pulled after 88 pitches and with a three-run lead. (Put a pin in this one).
Ivan Herrera threw out his first base runner after allowing 60 straight stolen bases … and it was Elly De La Cruz.
Peter Strzelecki bailed out a tired bullpen with three strong innings, but he surrendered a game-tying solo homer to Dane Myers with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. De La Cruz won it with a walk-off hit in the 10th inning.
Tuesday, Aug. 18 (Cards 3, Reds 0): Kyle Leahy shut out the Reds over five innings – his 10th straight start of allowing two earned runs or fewer. Shortstop Masyn Winn homered and doubled twice for the first three-extra-base game of his career.
Wednesday, Aug. 19 (Reds 5, Cardinals 4): Liberatore struck out nine in six innings while protecting a 2-0 lead. However, he grooved a 1-2 pitch that Sal Stewart hit 422 feet for a go-ahead, three-run homer.
Thursday, Aug. 20 (Cards 10, Reds 9): In a wild game that would have perfectly encapsulated this trip if not for Sunday’s stunner, the Cards led 4-0, trailed 5-4, led 10-5 and won 10-9 in an exhausting back-and-forth.
Reliever Ryne Stanek surrendered a grand slam to Matt McLain, but he was let off the hook when Myers dropped what should have been a game-ending fly ball in the top of the ninth inning. The Cards scored six times to take a seemingly safe five-run lead into the bottom of the ninth.
However, Soriano (three walks) and All-Star closer Riley O’Brien (two walks) were wild and pitching on fumes. The game ended only after Walker ran down McLain’s drive to the warning track with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.
Friday, Aug. 21 (Phillies 7, Cards 6, 10 innings): The day started in ominous fashion when Pallante continued to experience pain during a bullpen session and was placed on the 15-day Injured List with right elbow inflammation. He was the first Cards starting pitcher to go on the IL in 23 months, dating to September of 2024.
Things got worse when Hunter Dobbins had to leave after one pitch of the fifth inning with right forearm tightness – an injury that also landed him on the Injured List.
As for the game, it was the best-played game of the trip and it had a playoff-like atmosphere. Báez and Walker smashed two-run homers.
A key moment came when Cards centerfielder Everson Pereira was hit on the back of the hand and had to leave the game in the eighth. Phillies first baseman Alec Bohm drilled a shot to the deepest part of the park in the 10th, and when utility fielder Jose Fermin – filling in for the injured Pereira – couldn’t haul it in, it went down as a game-winning, two-run triple.
Saturday, Aug. 22 (Phillies 12, Cards 3): The surging Phillies overwhelmed Mathews with three runs in the first and four more in the third inning. The night ended with reserve catcher Pedro Pages on the mound.
Sunday, Aug. 23 (Phillies 6, Cards 4): St. Louis dominated every aspect of the game for 8 2/3 innings and looked poised to avoid a sweep with their finest win. Burleson drove in two, Jose Fermin homered and JJ Wetherholt had an RBI single against Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez, who came into the day 11-1 at home this season. Leahy was strong again, but he was pulled after four innings and 63 pitches.
The bullpen held strong until O’Brien’s collapse after getting two outs in the ninth. He got to within a strike of the win three times, but JT Realmuto singled, Edmundo Sosa doubled in three runs on a ball down the third base line that shouldn’t have gotten by rookie Blaze Jordan and when No. 9 hitter Bryan De La Cruz drilled a spinning sweeper for a single that knotted the game. Despite seeing what had happened three days earlier in Cincinnati with O’Brien, Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol stuck with his closer. Schwarber hit O’Brien’s 39th pitch a staggering 459 feet for his 39th homer of the season.
