Arizona Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly pitched six effective innings, but St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante was that much better in 3-2 victory.
If Arizona Diamondbacks fans looked at starting pitcher Merrill Kelly's pitching line from Monday night's game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, then they'd see some decent numbers.
Yet Cardinals starter Andre Pallante was just better and helped the Cardinals secure a 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
Kelly's record falls to 5-7. He pitched six innings, giving up seven hits, three earned runs, walked three, and struck out two. His ERA now sits at 5.71 after Monday night's game.
Pallante bumped his record up to 9-4. He, too, went six innings, giving up six hits, one earned run, didn't walk a batter, and struck out two. Cardinals closer Riley O'Brien worked a perfect ninth to get his 19th save this season.
Diamondbacks Now Back at .500
Arizona falls to .500 at 39-39 and the Diamondbacks remain in third place in the National League West Division. St. Louis goes to 42-34 and the Cardinals are in second place in the NL Central.
St. Louis scored three runs over the third and fourth innings to take a 3-0 lead. As it turned out, that's all the offense that the Cardinals needed on Monday night. Alec Burleson's RBI single in the third inning put St. Louis on the board at 1-0.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Blaze Jordan's RBI sacrifice fly upped St. Louis' lead to 2-0. Nathan Church followed with a run-scoring single and the Cardinals went up 3-0.
The Diamondbacks got on the board in the top of the sixth inning on Nolan Arenado's RBI groundout, cutting into St. Louis' lead at 3-1. Tommy Troy hit his third home run this season, a solo blast, and Arizona got within 3-2.
O'Brien came on in the ninth and got three straight outs, giving the Cardinals a victory in the series opener.
RISP Total Quite Frustrating
This statistic might make Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo lose some sleep. On Monday night, Arizona was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left six total runners on base. St. Louis was 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and also left six total runners on base.
Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll had two hits to pace the D-backs' offense. Arizona outhit St. Louis 8-7 on the night, but it just wasn't enough.
Arizona and St. Louis will go at it again in the second game of this three-game series on Tuesday night.
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