Hoping to homer for the first time in 15 games, Cardinals' slugger Jordan Walker drove a ball 407 feet to center field only to have Washington center fielder Dylan Crews rob the 112.1 mph smash. Ultimately, Washington scored four times in the 11th inning to beat the Cards 8-5.
Without a home run over his previous 15 games, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker was convinced he had finally cranked one in the third inning of Saturday’s game against the Washington Nationals at Busch Stadium.
After all, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Walker had gotten his power behind the 0-1 curveball from Andrew Alvarez and scorched it 112.1 mph off the bat.
Walker’s hopes were dashed however when budding Nats’ star Dylan Crews retreated to the warning track in center field, elevated and caught the ball above the wall before crashing face-first into the padding. A disappointed Walker, who missed out on a potential game-tying, two-run homer, snatched his helmet off his head and frustratingly hopped while venting to himself.
Walker’s frustrations were a microcosm of the Cardinals bitter feelings most of the night offensively. The Cardinals got a game-tying single from Pedro Pages in the ninth inning, but they missed out on three scoring chances to win the game.
After both teams scored in the 10th inning -- the St. Louis run coming on an opposite-field single by Masyn Winn -- Washington scored four times in the top of the 11th inning to beat the Cardinals 8-5 at Busch Stadium in a four-hour marathon.
Washington broke the 4-all tie when rookie Leo Bernal was called for a bases-loaded catcher's interference. Gordon Graceffo (8-2) yielded four runs -- two of which were unearned.
Walker saved at least one run in the 11th inning by diving parallel to the ground to make a spectacular catch in the gap. The All-Star and Home Run Derby champion came to the plate with the bases loaded in the 11th inning, but he chased a pitch well off the plate and struck out. He finished the game 0 for 6 with four strikeouts and the robbed homer.
The Cards were shut out for six innings before scoring twice in the seventh inning thanks to two throwing errors by the Nats. St. Louis did have three hits in the inning and Jose Fermin singled in a run. In the ninth, Nathan Church hit a liner back up the middle that ricocheted off the second base bag for a double. After a couple of failed sacrifice tries, Pages went the other way for a single that plated Church to tie the game. It was Pages' first RBI since June 18.
Officially eliminated from Wild Card contention following their lopsided loss to Washington on Friday, the Cardinals rested MLB RBI leader Alec Burleson and standout rookie JJ Wetherholt most of Saturday night. Burleson, who has driven in a career-best 111 runs, pinch hit and struck out in the ninth inning, but had a single in the 11th. Wetherholt, who returned from time on the Injured List because of right wrist tendinitis, didn't start after playing nine innings on Friday night. Wetherholt, who was 0 for 7 with three strikeouts in his first two games back, had an RBI single in the 11th inning.
Washington scored two runs just two batters into the game when Daylen Lile crushed a 404-foot home run – in a similar spot to where Crews robbed Walker of a home run. Oddly, Statcast measured Lile’s homer three feet shorter than Walker’s drive to center field that was robbed at the wall.
Cardinals center fielder Nathan Church went up high into the air to try and rob Lile’s drive, but he missed and slammed his ribcage and hip into the one – an injury that delayed the game for minutes. Church ended up staying in the game.
"I thought I was going to get there until I didn't (catch it) and that's how I try to go about it," Church said of his attempt to rob the homer. "Just try to go and get the ball until you can't."
Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy was pulled after just four innings of work on another unseasonably steamy night at Busch Stadium. After allowing the first two to reach, McGreevy limited the high-powered Nats to just three hits the rest of the way. He walked one, struck out one and had 56 of his 88 pitches go for strikes. His season ERA rose to 3.84.
"I would have loved to go out there for the fifth inning and help the bullpen out and days like that happen in baseball, but you still feel terrible for kind of what you are setting the bullpen up for," McGreevy said. "You look back and kick yourself for them having to come in before they want, before I want and before (manager) Oli (Marmol) wants, for sure.
"After the homer, that's really just the one pitch I want back. It was just a poor pitch selection on my part. It was cutter up, which isn't a bad pitch for me. But after he was late on the heater, giving him the cutter was a gift."
The Nats added their third run of the night in the sixth inning when rookie pitcher Luis Gastelum had a chopper back up the middle deflect off his glove for an infield single. Had Gastelum not touched the ball, Gold Glove shortstop Masyn Winn likely would have turned the turned the grounder into the third out and prevented Jorbit Vivas from scoring.
