Cardinals at risk of completely halting early momentum after another deflating loss

After handing the Los Angeles Angels a win on Monday night, the St. Louis Cardinals repeated that ending but with different failures plaguing them in their 9-6 loss to the Angels on Tuesday night.

After heading to extras for the second straight game, Ryan Fernandez seemed to give the game away after allowing a two-RBI triple to Nolan Schanuel and then an RBI single to Jo Adell to give the Angels a 6-3 lead going into the 10th. The Cardinals appeared to have other plans.

Masyn Winn led off the inning with a walk, and after a passed ball allowed Winn and Victor Scott II to advance, Luken Baker laced a double into the gap in left-center. Brendan Donovan walked in the next at-bat, and Michael Siani then scored on an RBI single from Nolan Arenado that tied the game back up at six. Jordan Walker just missed hitting his fly ball deep enough to score Donovan from third, and Herrera grounded out to end the rally.

In the top of the 11th, Chris Roycroft navigated the Angels' lineup to record the first two outs of the inning, but Kyren Paris was able to slap a single into right field to score Tim Anderson, and Yoan Moncada followed that up with a two-RBI double to give the Angels a 9-6 lead going into the bottom of the 11th.

When the bottom of the 11th came around, Scott got the action started with an RBI single to center field to cut down the Angels' lead to two runs, but Winn, Nootbaar, and pinch-hitter Willson Contreras were all retired in order to end the game.

Questionable decisions from manager Oliver Marmol earlier in the game came once again in the form of his catcher deployment. With the Cardinals down by a run going into the seventh and Pedro Pages coming to bat, Marmol elected to stick with Pages. Faced with the same decision tied in the bottom of the ninth, Marmol once again stuck with Pages at the plate. Both times Pages failed to deliver, and he was finally lifted for Herrera in the bottom of the 10th when he came to the plate again.

Yesterday's contest was filled with frustrating decisions from Marmol, but outside of the head-scratching usage of his catchers, it was on the players this evening. The offense was once again held in check by Cardinal killer Kyle Hendricks, and once extra innings came around, the bullpen couldn't get it done.

Some may point to Walker's flyout to right field as another mistake in this game, as the throw in to the plate ended up being high and might have allowed Donovan to score from third to end the game. Unfortunately, Trout has a great arm, and so running on a ball that shallow in right field would not have been a wise decision, especially with Herrera on deck and the bases still loaded.

If you're looking for silver linings from this game, it was encouraging to see the Cardinals fight back multiple times in this one. They did not roll over, and the lineup continued to put up runs. The bullpen falling apart tonight is worth monitoring, but you can't expect them to be perfect every evening. But two straight innings of allowing three runs, even if one of those was a ghost runner, is not going to cut it if they want to win games and ultimately series.

The Cardinals now sit with a record of 3-2 and will look to avoid a sweep on Wednesday. Sonny Gray is set to make his second start of the year against left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi.