Cardinals Lose to Phillies in 10 Innings, but also Lose Another Starting Pitcher to Injury

The Cardinals lost 7-6 to the Phillies in 10 innings in the first game of a series loaded with playoff implications, but that wasn’t even the most damaging loss of the night for the club.

Just hours after announcing that Andre Pallante would be going on the 15-day Injured List with inflammation in his right elbow, the Cardinals looked on in horror after Hunter Dobbins stepped off the mound in pain after throwing just one pitch in Friday night’s fifth inning. Dobbins, who moved into the starting rotation following the trading of Dustin May and beat the Cubs in Chicago last weekend, was lost with right forearm tightness.

"We didn't want to push through it after he felt some tightness in the forearm," manager Oliver Marmol said to Cardinals TV. "I was watching his warmups and didn't love it. I think he's going to be OK, but I'll have more information shortly. But I just didn't want him to push through it."

Pallante’s injury, apparently suffered in Monday’s start in Cincinnati where he was pulled after surrendering 10 hits and throwing 88 pitches, was the first arm issue that landed a Cardinals starter on the IL since September of 2024 when Sonny Gray was placed there as a precautionary measure after the team had been eliminated from playoff contention.

The short-handed Cardinals got the game tied in the eighth inning on a clutch two-out hit by Bryan Torres, and they took a 6-5 lead in the 10th on a Jose Fermin single to scored automatic runner Alec Burleson. However, Alec Bohm capped a three-hit night by tripling in Bryce Harper and pinch-runner Edmundo Sosa in the bottom of the 10th when Fermin -- who was playing his third position of the game because of injuries -- couldn't haul in Bohm's drive to the deepest part of the park.

"I know we've been on the wrong side of some of these one-run ballgames, but I love where our group is headed," Marmol said. "That's a good environment to train in and the guys are getting used to them and they've normalized it. They're playing absolutely fearless, regardless of who they're playing, who's across the way or the environment. That's one of the things you want to get right when you're in a rebuild -- culturally having a group of guys who don't scare. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take this one, but a lot of positives." 

The Cards got opposite-field, two-run homers from rookie sensation Joshua Báez and Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker early in the game to take 2-0 and 4-3 leads. However, after losing the lead in the sixth inning, the scrappy Cards found a way to get the game tied at 5. Burleson opened the inning by singling, moving up to second on a passed ball and to third on an infield groundout. Torres, who spent 11 years in the Minor Leagues and Independent Leagues before getting an MLB call-up, stayed on a sweeper from lefty Brooks Raley and dumped it into center to score Burleson and knot the score.

The Cardinals came into the night having captured their past five series and having won seven of 10 games to pull within 2 1/3 games of the final Wild Card slot, currently occupied by the San Diego Padres. As for the Phillies, they won for a seventh straight time and improved to 9-2 in their last 11 games – with the two losses coming to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium 10 days ago.

After taking a 2-0 first-inning lead on Báez’s fourth homer in just eight MLB games – the first Cardinals to do that since Joe Cunningham in 1954 – St. Louis lost the lead when the Phillies scored twice in the second and once in the third against Dobbins. The 26-year-old right-hander acquired in the Willson Contreras trade to Boston winced after his first pitch of the fifth inning and left with right forearm tightness after consulting with trainer Adam Olsen and manager Oliver Marmol.

Walker, who was lustily booed before every at bat after returning to Philadelphia where he rallied to beat Phillies’ star slugger Kyle Schwarber in the Home Run Derby, drilled a 3-2 pitch from Jesus Luzardo for a two-run homer in the sixth inning to propel the Cardinals back into the lead.

It wouldn’t last long as JT Realmuto smacked his first extra-base hit in 10 games to drive in Bohm, who led off the sixth with a single and moved up on an opposite-field cue shot single by Brandon Marsh. Rookie Justin Crawford plated the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly.