7 shining moments in Cardinals series with Phillies

It wasn’t looking good for a while, but the St. Louis Cardinals split a four-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Cardinals had a frustrating series but managed to take two of four from the Phillies.

The Cardinals lost on Friday 2-0. They lost Saturday 1-0. The Cardinals won Sunday 4-3, and won on Monday 6-1.

The Cardinals are now 47-42 on the season and take on the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch on Tuesday – Thursday. The Cardinals take on their division rival Cincinnati Reds Friday – Sunday at Busch, closing out the first half of the season prior to the All-Star Break.

Things should be exciting as the Cardinals round out the first half of their 2022 campaign.

Let’s take a look at some of the shining moments in the Cardinals series with the Phillies.

Adam Wainwright pitches well despite loss

As Bally Sports Midwest broadcaster Jimmy Edmonds said he told Wainwright, but for two pitches, Wainwright pitched an absolute masterpiece. Wainwright is now 6-7 on the season after pitching a complete game Friday. He gave up five hits and two home runs to Alec Bohm. He did induce four swings and misses.

More problems with RISP and LOBs

On Friday, the Cardinals were 0-for-3  with seven runners left on base. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt each had two hits. Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson had one hit each. Carlson also struck out twice.

On Saturday, the Cardinals were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base. The Cardinals only got two hits on the afternoon, one from Andrew Knizner and Lars Nootbaar. The lineup struck out seven times.

While the Cardinals did win Sunday, it could have been by a larger margin. The Cardinals were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals left ten runners on base. Goodness. It’s terrible to see such a talented team have these bad moments on what’s become a regular basis of late.

Giovanny Gallegos blows game once again

Giovanny Gallegos is fun to watch when he is on, but the mistakes made when he’s not right can be just devastating.

The Phillies and Cardinals were tied at zero all when Gallegos came in to pitch the ninth.
with Mickey Moniak on base, Alec Bohn knocked a sacrifice fly to, once again, score the winning run. Gallegos is now 2-3 on the season.

Dakota Hudson had a good start going six innings, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out four batters.

Genesis Cabrera had a good two-thirds of an inning of work. He walked two but also struck out two batters. Jordan Hicks closed out the seventh inning. Ryan Helsley pitched the eighth inning, giving up only a hit and a walk.

It was good to see Hudson have a better start on Saturday. Despite the ultimate result, let’s hope he builds on it in future outings.

Pujols comes up huge Sunday

Cardinals legendary first baseman Albert Pujols had a 3-for-4 afternoon for the club.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Pujols hit his fifth home run of the season and 684th of his career. The home run was knocked off Cristopher Sanchez on a fly to center field, traveling 409 feet at 105 mph.

In the second inning, Lars Nootbaar hit a single to left field to score Nolan Arenado. In the seventh, the score was tied up at 3 as Nolan Gorman grounded out to the first base to score Austin Romine.

In the eighth inning, Tommy Edman knocked a sacrifice fly to center field allowing Dylan Carlson to make a fantastic slide, avoiding a tag from JT Realmuto.

Carlson was originally called out but the Cardinals requested the play be reviewed which allowed a review that showed Carlson completely avoiding the tag and scoring the winning run.

Miles Mikolas burns more than sage in win

Prior to Sunday’s game against the Phillies, Mikolas was observed walking around the outfield burning sage. It may seem a little out of the ordinary. But the Cardinals won on Sunday after a couple of painful games on Friday and Saturday when they couldn’t get anything going.

Mikolas extended the wisdom gained from the sage burning, pitching 7.1 innings, giving up six hits and one earned run, a homer to Rhys Hoskins. Mikolas struck out five and induced 11 swings and misses.

Genesis Cabrera pitched one inning, striking out one. Junior Fernandez pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up two hits while striking out one.

Corey Dickerson steps up as Pujols breaks another record

The Cardinals had their best inning in some time in the fifth inning of Monday’s game. Corey Dickerson singled to center field to score Dylan Carlson. Edmundo Sosa doubled to left field, scoring Dickerson. Andrew Knizner single d to right field, to score Sosa.

Albert Pujols got on base in the seventh inning, with a double that was inches away from being a home run. The double was the 1,378th extra-base hit of his career moving him ahead of Hall of Famer and Cardinals legend Stan Musial for third all-time. Unreal!

Dickerson knocked his third home run of the season with a fly to right-center field, scoring Pujols. The home run traveled 395 feet at 101.6 mph.

Lars Nootbaar joined the hit parade knocking his third homer of the season, with a fly to right field.  The home run traveled 390 feet at 102.1 mph.

It was so good to see the Cardinals string together some hits and score some runs. It seemed like so long since we had seen them do this and it was great.