Using the same quick hands that so often allowed him to ambush fastballs for big hits at Busch Stadium over the previous five seasons, Nolan Arenado did it again on Tuesday night.

Only this time around, the 35-year-old Arenado did it for the Diamondbacks and against a Cardinals club he loved competing with from 2021-25.

Arenado, who was given a warm ovation for a second straight night in his first return to Busch Stadium since being traded to Arizona in January, delivered a run-scoring double in the top of the ninth to lift the D-backs past the Cardinals 4-3 on Tuesday night.

A weird sequence of events set the stage for Arenado in the ninth inning. Gabriel Moreno’s routine fly ball to right field was lost in the lights by Jordan Walker and fell in for a single. Moreno moved to second on a wild pitch and Arenado jumped a 98.2 mph sinker and drilled it into the left field corner to break up the scoreless game. Arenado’s 13th double of the season plated his 33rd run and proved to be Arizona’s first hit with a runner in scoring position so far in the series.

Lourdes Gurriel followed with another single to plate two runs to expand Arizona’s lead. Arenado was 1 for 4 a night after he had a single and an RBI against the Cards.

Down 4-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals made things interesting when Lars Nootbaar doubled, Jose Fermin singled and Alec Burleson extended his on-base streak to 22 straight games with a run-scoring double. Blaze Jordan followed with an RBI sac fly and Jimmy Crooks -- who entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter -- drove in another run with a single to get the Redbirds within 4-3.

The game ended when Arizona lefty reliever Brandyn Garcia struck out standout rookie JJ Wetherholt, leaving the Cards rally one run short.

"Obviously, you want to get (the rally) going sooner and we've done that a decent amount, but we were unable to against their starter," manager Oliver Marmol said on Cardinals.TV, referring to Arizona's Eduardo Rodriguez, who limited the Cards to three hits over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. "Our guy (Kyle Leahy) did a nice job as well and kept it at zeroes until the ninth and then both teams threw together some really good at bats. We came up short, but our offense did fight back."

It was the first time that an MLB game went to the ninth inning 0-0 before both teams scored three runs since June 3, 2014, between the Blue Jays and Tigers, per Elias Sports Bureau.   

In a stretch where they will play 21 straight games against teams with .500-or-better records, the Cardinals got a second straight strong performance from their starter. Andre Pallante held Arizona to one run over six innings of work, and Kyle Leahy followed with a Quality Start of his own on Tuesday.

The Cardinals were without Gold Glove shortstop Masyn Winn, who was scratched from the starting lineup before first pitch with left thumb irritation. Marmol said that Winn had imaging done on his thumb during the game and the team is still awaiting those results before determining a course of action.

Leahy allowed just three hits – all doubles – over his 6 1/3 innings of work, but he pitched out of trouble each time. Ketel Marte led off the game with an opposite-field double, but he retired the next three batters with a Corbin Carroll being the big out.

LuJames Groover led off the third inning with a double to left-center, but he never advanced as Leahy retired the next three straight. This time around, Leahy got a big strikeout by using a tailing sinker to catch Marte looking. He pulled off another escape in the fifth inning when he got Groover and Tommy Troy to foul out after Lourdes Gurriel Jr. popped a one-out double that Jordan Walker kept out of the gap in right-center.

"My misses were smaller, but in the right direction of where I weas trying to go," Leahy said of a strong outing that dropped his ERA to 4.24 on the season. 

The Cards missed scoring chances in the fourth and sixth innings. Walker broke up the no-hitter in the fourth inning with an opposite-field single and Lars Nootbaar followed with another single to right field. However, Nelson Velazquez got caught looking and Jose Fermin flied out.

In the sixth inning, Velazquez was back at the dish with the bases loaded and one out. He flied out to shallow left-center and Ivan Herrera tagged from third when Perdomo and Troy collided. Perdomo’s throw to the plate was perfect to erase Herrera and keep the game scoreless.

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