St. Louis Cardinals handed series loss by Texas Rangers

With losses against the Texas Rangers on Friday and Saturday nights, the St. Louis Cardinals were handed another series loss.
Jun 21, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny (22) heads to the mound to relieve Cardinals pitcher Tyler Lyons (70) at Busch Stadium. Image Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
Making matters worse, Tyler Lyons could not get out of the second inning on Friday night. The rookie faced 11 batters and threw 46 pitches (25 strikes) before Mike Matheny decided to replace him with Joe Kelly. In six starts, Lyons was 2-3 with a 5.51 ERA. His first two starts were not bad. But in the four other starts, Lyons gave up 4, 4, 6, and 4 runs, respectively. The Cardinals had no other choice but to take action.

On Friday, Lyons was a disaster on the mound. After the bases were loaded as a result of hits and walks, Kelly got the Cards out of the second inning. Kelly pitched 5 solid innings of relief, allowing 5 hits and striking out 3.

Randy Choate faced a batter, allowed a hit, and was replaced by Trevor Rosenthal. Rosenthal pitched the final 2 innings for the Cardinals and gave up the 2 runs that broke the 4-4 tie in the top of the ninth inning.

The Cardinals offense gave Tyler Lyons a 3-0 lead when he returned to the mound in the second inning but it wasn’t enough. The Cardinals had scored 3 runs as the result of 2 doubles.

After the Rangers took a 4-3 lead in the second inning, Pete Kozma scored on a passed by to tie the game. That would be the final run by the Cardinals for the night.

Following the game, Lyons was sent to Memphis and Michael Blazek was recalled. Blazek was briefly up with the Cardinals for 3 games but didn’t pitch in that time. With Memphis, Blazek had recorded a 2.31 ERA and 1 save. In 11.2 innings pitched, he struck out 19 batters. Prior to Memphis, Blazek was with the Springfield Cardinals, where he pitched 19.2 innings, allowing 11 hits, 2 earned runs, and striking out 25 for a 0.92 ERA.