Cardinals Routed by Orioles at Busch
THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Routed by Orioles at Busch
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals came home needing a reset after a brutal weekend in Philadelphia.
They got the opposite.
Baltimore scored four runs in the third inning, broke the game open with eight more in the fifth and handed the Cardinals a 13-1 loss Tuesday night at Busch Stadium in the opener of a three-game series.
It was the Cardinals’ fourth straight loss and another damaging night for a team trying to keep any realistic postseason hopes alive. After being swept in Philadelphia, including a ninth-inning collapse Sunday, St. Louis needed to show some response at home. Instead, the Cardinals were buried by the middle innings and never gave themselves a chance to make the game competitive.
The Orioles did most of their early damage with power. Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer in the third inning off Matthew Liberatore, scoring Leody Taveras and Jackson Holliday to give Baltimore a 3-0 lead. Christian Encarnacion-Strand followed later in the inning with a solo homer to left-center, stretching the Orioles’ lead to 4-0.
Nathan Church gave the Cardinals their only answer in the bottom of the third, hitting a solo home run to right-center off Chris Bassitt. It was Church’s 10th home run of the season and briefly cut the deficit to 4-1.
That was as close as St. Louis got.
Baltimore turned the game into a blowout in the fifth. Holliday singled, Alonso followed with a base hit, Gunnar Henderson walked and Coby Mayo singled to left to bring home Holliday. Encarnacion-Strand followed with a two-run single after Peter Strzelecki replaced Liberatore, and the inning only got worse from there.
Dylan Beavers walked with the bases loaded, Leody Taveras singled home two runs, Holliday added an RBI single and Alonso doubled home another run. By the time the inning ended, Baltimore had scored eight times and led 12-1.
Beavers added an RBI double in the sixth to make it 13-1.
Liberatore’s final line was rough. He allowed eight runs on eight hits over four innings, walking one and striking out seven. The strikeout total showed the swing-and-miss was there, but the Orioles punished too many mistakes and turned traffic into crooked numbers.
Strzelecki also had a difficult outing, allowing four runs on four hits while recording one out. Caleb Ferguson and Ryan Fernandez handled the final innings, but the game had already gotten away.
Alonso led Baltimore’s 15-hit attack, going 4-for-4 with a homer, a double, four RBIs and two runs scored. Encarnacion-Strand finished with two hits, a homer and three RBIs. Holliday had three hits, two runs and an RBI, while Taveras added two hits, two runs and two RBIs.
The Cardinals managed six hits against Bassitt and Yennier Cano. Bassitt worked 6.2 innings, allowing one run, no walks and striking out five. He did not overpower St. Louis, but he stayed in the strike zone, avoided free passes and never let the Cardinals build an inning.
Church had the lone run-scoring swing for St. Louis. JJ Wetherholt, Iván Herrera, Alec Burleson, Joshua Báez, Ramón Urías and Church accounted for the Cardinals’ hits, but St. Louis did not draw a walk and never created sustained pressure.
The loss continued a difficult stretch for the Cardinals. Friday in Philadelphia, they lost in 10 innings after taking a lead in extras. Saturday, they were routed. Sunday, they carried a four-run lead into the ninth and lost. Tuesday, they returned home and were beaten by 12 runs.
That is not a rough patch. That is a hard turn in the wrong direction.
For a team that spent much of August trying to sell the idea that there was still time, the margin is getting thin. The Cardinals had a favorable portion of the schedule in front of them and came into this homestand needing to take advantage of it. The first night did not just go badly. It unraveled.
Baltimore entered the series under .500 but still fighting in the American League Wild Card race. The Orioles played like a team that understood the urgency. The Cardinals did not.
There are still two games left in the series, but Tuesday was another reminder that opportunity only matters if a team does something with it. St. Louis had a chance to come home, stop the slide and start repairing some of the damage from Philadelphia.
Instead, the Cardinals were outpitched, outhit and outplayed.
Orioles 13, Cardinals 1.
Another ugly loss.
Another game slipping away from a season that is running out of room.
The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Jackson Holliday, Baltimore Orioles | MLB