4 standouts in St. Louis Cardinals series loss to Red Sox

The Cardinals tried to make things exciting but couldn’t salvage a series win as the Red Sox took two of three games against St. Louis.

Despite losing two of three games to the Boston Red Sox, the St. Louis Cardinals certainly made things interesting.

The Cardinals lost Friday 6-5, won on Saturday 11-2, and lost Sunday 6-4.

The Cardinals faced their former pitcher Michael Wacha on Friday. Wacha looked excellent in besting his mentor Adam Wainwright, who is now 5-5 on the season. He pitched 6.1 innings without his regular batterymate, Yadier Molina. Wainwright had five strikeouts and induced ten swings and misses.

Tanner Houck got a save for the Red Sox. but did allow things to get interesting as he gave up four runs in the ninth.

The Cardinals brought 12 batters to the plate in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game, creating a huge offensive output toward an 11-2 win. The Cardinals even got a homer from Nolan Gorman, deep to center field. This was his fourth homer of the season. The home run traveled 440 feet at 106.7 mph.

Andre Pallante pitched well but ultimately got his second loss of the season Sunday. He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four hits, a walk, a homer to Trevor Story, two earned runs, and four strikeouts. He induced 10 swings and misses.

Genesis Cabrera pitched an inning, giving up two hits, two walks, and one run, and struck out two batters while inducing five swings and misses.  Drew VerHagen pitched 1.1 innings, giving up three hits, a walk, and a homer to Christian Vazquez which scored Alex Verdugo and Trevor Story. He did strike out three batters and induce five swings and misses.

As far as scoring for the Cardinals, the team got a huge home run off the bat of Juan Yepez in the ninth inning. It was Yepez’s sixth home run of the season, scoring Edmundo Sosa and Nolan Gorman. The huge blast traveled 398 feet over the Green Monster at 114.4 mph.

The Cardinals head to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers in a four-game set against the team they are currently tied with for first place in the NL Central. This should be a fun series. Here’s hoping the Cardinals get some wins.

Now, let’s take a look at the standouts from the Cardinals series against the Red Sox.

 Harrison Bader

In the ninth inning of Friday’s game, Harrison Bader tripled on a liner to center field, scoring Dylan Carlson. Tommy Edman then doubled on a liner to left field, scoring Bader. Brendan Donovan doubled on a liner to center field, scoring Andrew Knizner and Edman.

On Saturday, Tommy Edman singled on a grounder to center field, scoring Carlson and  Bader. Paul Goldschmidt singled to center field, scoring Knizner and Edman.

Bader knocked a single in the fourth inning to left field, scoring Tyler O’Neill. Bader ended up speeding into the second base.

Bader was 1-for-3 on Sunday.

Dakota Hudson

Hudson is now 5-3 on the season with his win on Saturday. He pitched five innings, giving up four hits, five walks, and two earned runs. He did strike out three batters and induced five swings and misses

Zack Thompson looked great in relief of Hudson, earning his first hold of the season. He pitched three innings, striking out four batters and inducing five swings and misses.

T.J. McFarland had a good inning of relief on Saturday, only giving up a hit.

Tyler O’Neill

Dylan Carlson knocked a double on a liner to right field on Saturday to score Tyler O’Neill.

In the sixth inning, the Cardinals scored six times to create a more comfortable lead over the Red Sox. The scoring started with Tyler O’Neill on Saturday. O’Neill knocked his fourth home run of the season on a fly to centerfield. The homer traveled 410 feet at 107.6 mph.

In the ninth inning, Andrew Knizner knocked a ground-rule double, to right-center field, scoring O’Neill.

On Sunday, O’Neill was 3-for-4 with a run and looked like it was starting to get things together after a rough start to the season. In the ninth inning, he knocked a double to center field. He was removed from the game with a possible hamstring injury. He was being evaluated during post-game press conferences.

This is really frustrating as O’Neill was starting to put together some hits and knocking the ball to all sides of the field. The Cardinals have to be hoping that if O’Neill has to miss anytime, it isn’t very long as he is a huge piece to the team’s ultimate success this season.