The Cardinals battled back from a seven-run deficit, but they lost 8-7 to the Baltimore Orioles when closer Riley O'Brien surrendered a single, a wild pitch and a run-scoring double in the top of the ninth inning. The Cards' losing streak is up to a season-worst five games.
Five times before this season, the Cardinals had faced the adversity that accompanies a four-game losing streak and each time they had responded with resolve to save their sagging season with victories.
This time, however, the adversity was ratcheted up ten-fold with them down seven runs in Wednesday’s first two innings – less than 24 hours after losing in lopsided fashion in Game 1 of the series against the Orioles.
Again, the young and feisty Cardinals responded by getting a homer from Nolan Gorman and a stirring six-run fifth inning to get the game knotted. However, all their hard work went for naught when All-Star closer Riley O'Brien continued to struggle in big spots.
O'Brien, who suffered an epic meltdown on Sunday in Philadelphia when he surrendered six straight runs after there were two outs in in the ninth to blow a four-run lead, had an ill-timed wild pitch and allowed a 103.2 mph, run-scoring double to Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the ninth inning of the Cardinals' 8-7 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
"(O'Brien) has had a couple of tough outings, but previous to that he has a helluva lot of good ones, and this is part of being a closer and learning to be a closer," Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol said. "You learn how to do hard things by doing hard things. Right now, this isn't easy for him but guess what -- you put your head down and you plow through it. So, he'll be fine."
The Cardinals (66-68) saw their losing streak grow to a season-worst five games with a second straight loss to Baltimore. This one, which followed a gutsy comeback from an early seven-run deficit, might have stung much more than Tuesday's 13-1 throttling.
O'Brien, who came into the night as the National League's leader in saves with 33, continued to show signs of late-season wear and tear. Last Thursday in Cincinnati, he allowed a two-run double and two run-scoring walks, before getting a liner to the warning track to preserve a 10-9 victory. Then, on Sunday in Philadelphia, O'Brien suffered through every closer's nightmare when he allowed hit after hit to surrender a four-run bulge. The final blow had to be a scarring one: Kyle Schwarber drilled a 2-2 pitch over the batter's eye in center field for a 469-foot, walk-off homer.
On Tuesday, O'Brien's struggles were much less dramatic, but still evident. Samuel Basallo cued a single the other way and gave way to pinch runner Luis Vazquez, who moved up to second when O'Brien yanked a wild pitch. Then, Encarnacion-Strand -- who blistered a 450-foot homer a night earlier -- drilled the ball into the right-center gap for the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Cards got Ivan Herrera and Jordan Walker in scoring position, but Baltimore second baseman Jackson Holliday -- son of Cardinals' Hall of Famer Matt Holliday -- made a diving stop and throw to first to save a run. Jose Fermin, who drove in the tying run to knot the game at 7 in the fifth inning, popped out to end another frustrating loss for the Cards.
"You get a check swing (from Basallo) that leads to a base runner ... our first baseman (Alec Burleson) hit a ball almost through their guy and that leads to an out," Marmol said of his team's tough luck in the ninth inning. "Holliday make a really nice play (in the bottom of the ninth). That ball gets through, that's a run and the questions are different, and the feel is different. So, sometimes you just have to chalk some of this up to bad ball luck. Really, (the Orioles) took two good swings off of Riley. One was caught by (Nathan Church) and the other found the gap."
Michael McGreevy retired the first two batters of the game, but he then ran into serious trouble. The next five reached – three on singles, one by walk and a three-run homer by Leody Taveras to give the Orioles a somewhat shocking 5-0 lead just seven hitters into the game. On a 2-2 pitch, McGreevy’s curveball was in the middle of the plate and Taveras launched it into the bullpen for his eighth homer of the season.
The Baltimore lead ballooned to 7-0 in the second inning when a struggling McGreevy left a four-seam fastball up to long-time Cardinals killer Pete Alonso, who drilled it the opposite way 369 feet for a two-run homer.
"The type of contact -- minus the homer -- was jam shots hits 70-something miles per hour, and two balls hit through the (second base hole)," McGreevy said. "I didn't have the sinker today and the shape wasn't good. Good on Strand for going the other way with it (on his first-inning single) and the same with Alonso. I didn't I threw the ball all that poorly. But in terms of what the box score said, I'm really happy to at least get to five (innings) to help the bullpen out.
"It was so sick for our offense to put on a comeback like that. It was awesome."
Gorman, who was recalled to the Cardinals when Masyn Winn (fractured left thumb) was placed on the 10-day Injured List, went hitless in four at bats and struck out three times in his first game back on Tuesday. In his first at bat on Wednesday, Gorman connected on an elevated sinker and hit it 413 feet to get the Cards on the scoreboard. It was a continuation of the power Gorman flashed at Triple-A Memphis when he ripped seven of his 13 homers in August.
The big inning that never came in Tuesday’s lopsided loss finally showed up in the fifth inning when Bryan Torres led off with a single. After JJ Wetherholt and Herrera walked to load the bases, Cardinals’ RBI machine Alec Burleson drilled a two-run single back up the middle. Walker followed with a double down the third base line to score Herrera, and two more runs scored when Nathan Church’s double down the left field line clanked off the glove of Dylan Beavers. After Church stole third – and wisely held up on a wild pitch by Alex Hoppe that ricocheted back to the pitcher – he scored the tying run when Femin hit a high chopper to shortstop.
After surrendering the seven runs over the first two innings, McGreevy settled down and held the Orioles scoreless over his final three innings of work to allow the offense to get the Cards back into the game.
