Jhonny Peralta Comes Up Big For St. Louis Cardinals

With a single in the top of the tenth, Jhonny Peralta stepped up big again to knock in the winning run to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6.

Whew!

The Cardinals are now two games away from clinching the NL Central.

Peralta also came up huge in the sixth inning, hitting a double off the center field wall to drive in Jon Jay. It’s not even a surprise that Peralta came up big at a big moment Friday. He’s been doing it all season. It was just really great to see! Peralta was three for five with three RBI.

Down 6-3 in the eighth inning, the Diamondbacks pulled together a string of hits off Pat Neshek.

It was nervous time for Cardinals fans as they were seeing what they had seemingly been seeing all season. The Cardinals struggling, then doing well only to start struggling again. Thank goodness they were able to do another thing the team has been doing a lot lately … pulling together as a team, not giving up and ultimately pulling out the win. I am happy for that as a lifelong fan of this team.

I just don’t know if I can physically take much more of it!

The Cardinals will test out the heart of their fan base tonight as Lance Lynn takes the bump at Chase Field. He is 15-10 this season with an ERA of 2.73.  The game starts at 7:10 p.m., on Fox Sports Midwest.

Prior to Friday’s game, the D-Backs fired manager Kirk Gibson and coach Alan Trammell. Trammell agreed to stay on and manage the final series of the season against the Cardinals. … Because it would be awkward for Tony LaRussa to take off his baseball operations hat with the D-Backs and put on his manager’s hat and against the Cardinals, a team he won two World Series Championships with during the course of his tenure with the Cards. No. That wouldn’t be awkward at all! Here’s a post on the move from our friends at Venom Strikes.

The Cards will know what they need to do tonight when they take the field as the Pittsburgh Pirates will take on the Cincinnati Reds at 12:05 p.m., in Cincy. The Cards could be one game from clinching when they take the field.

No pressure, Cardinals. No pressure at all!