CINCINNATI — An assignment in the lesson plans for the Cardinals’ second semester syllabus to prepare and identify players for next season and beyond is to urge them to strive to be aggressive, to stride to make a play and determine what’s possible, not settle for what’s in reach.
That push does sometimes require a net to still win.
“That’s needed,†manager Oli Marmol said late Friday night in his office. “I want these guys to stay aggressive. If they’re going to error on one side, be on the aggressive side, so we can talk about it and grow from it rather than being timid. But it takes other guys picking you up when that happens. We did that.â€
The Cardinals squandered three leads but seized the most important one — the final one — in the 10th inning and fended off the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5, at Great American Ball Park. A throwing error by Reds All-Star Elly De La Cruz on what could have been the final out of a scoreless 10th inning opened the way for the Cardinals two score twice. Ryan Fernandez struck out De La Cruz to end the game a few minutes later. But before getting to that exchange in the 10th inning, the Cardinals had several seesaws throughout the game that would define the game.
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A misstep on the bases was followed by a home run for a lead.
A costly flinch that cost a run was followed by a lockdown reliever.
Young reliever Gordon Graceffo lost the lead (twice).
Masyn Winn picked him up with hits to assert a lead (twice).
Winn had three hits and three RBIs, including the two-strike single in the 10th inning that secured the Cardinals’ insurance run.
Catching prospect Jimmy Crooks made his major-league debut as a defensive sub for the ninth inning and was there to shepherd Fernandez through the 10th to pick up the bullpen. Each time a Cardinal did something that appeared to turn the game against them, another Cardinal was there, as baseball clubhouses say, “to pick each other up.â€
“That was a big part of it,†Marmol said.
Here are five (or maybe six) examples of how it happened:
Walker, et. al., picked up by Pages
The Cardinals’ first-inning lead did not survive the bottom of the inning, and they were just about ready to run themselves out of tying the game in the top of the second.
With runners at the corners, Jordan Walker broke from first to either take second, if permitted, or buy time for Thomas Saggese to skedaddle home from third to tie the game. Walker had just reached first on an error, and the Cardinals were willing to push to see if they could invite the Reds into some more chaos. Aggressive, per instructions.
But Walker pushed toward second instead of turning back into a rundown.
He was caught stealing, and the Cardinals had a runner still at third with two outs.
Within a few pitches, they had the lead anyway. Pedro Pages drove a two-run homer into the second-deck of seats beyond left field. Pages’ 10th home run of the season flipped the Reds’ early lead and gave the Cardinals the 3-2 edge while also bringing home the run the baserunning play almost left stranded.
Liberatore picked up by strikeouts
The in-game education of Matthew Liberatore began in the third inning as the Reds opened with a leadoff walk and a single before the lefty could get an out.
His escape hatch from that trouble that allowed him to pitch a scoreless inning was striking out cleanup hitter Miguel Andujar. What followed in subsequent were other strikeouts that similarly neutralized Reds’ rallies — one before the mushroomed and the other before it even began. In the third, Liberatore got ahead and set up Andujar with a 93.7-mph sinker. The lefty has been working on maintaining his velocity deep into his pitch count, not just deep into games. The Cardinals have unlocked a physical part of his delivery to help him be more consistent, and consistent velocity makes his off-speed pitches more effective.
Consider the changeup.
Ahead in the count to Andujar, Liberatore dropped an 88.8-mph changeup to the lower edge of the strike zone. Andujar swung over it for a key strikeout.
“Changeup strikeout was cool,†Liberatore said. “I don’t get many of those. A true swing-and-miss changeup down in the zone for a punchout in a big situation — that was awesome.â€
In the next inning, the Reds got two on with two out and that brought up leadoff hitter TJ Friedl. Liberatore again set up the at-bat with a 93.1-mph sinker. He went to the pitch that he’s been workshopping the past week — the slider — and got Friedl swinging at an 86.2-mph breaking ball. Liberatore cut to the chance in the fifth and struck out the first two batters. Four innings after homering off Liberatore, Noelvi Marte nicked a 92.3-mph fastball for a foul tip and a strikeout. Four innings after doubling against Liberatore, De La Cruz took a 76.6-mph curveball for a called strike three.
That came after Liberatore flashed him a 93.2-mph fastball.
“Timely strikeouts are huge,†said Liberatore, who struck out those four and allowed three runs on eight hits in five innings. “Those are four really good at-bats for me. I felt like I executed. I don’t know how many pitches it took for all four of those strikes, but if it was 15, I felt like I executed 13 out of those 15. In those situations, I happened to string together a lot of executed pitches.â€
Graceffo picked up by Winn (twice)
Thrust into pivotal innings because the Cardinals sought to avoid high-leverage right-handers Kyle Leahy and Riley O’Brien on Friday, rookie Gordon Graceffo had trouble from the opening moments of his first inning. De La Cruz greeted him with a triple and scored on a single to knot the game, 4-4, all before Graceffo could get his first out. In the eighth, Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a solo homer off Graceffo to erase the one-run lead he had coming in.
Each time Cincinnati answered the Cardinals’ lead against Graceffo, Winn was a part of snatching it back.
In the top of the eighth, Winn got ahead 3-0 against reliever Nick Marintez. The Cardinals had a runner at third base and also had already failed to bring him home with fewer than two outs. Winn remained aggressive with the 3-0 count and missed on consecutive pitches from Martinez. The full-count pitch, Winn pulled to left field, and it hugged the left-field line to drop down fair and for an RBI double and a 5-4 lead.
The Cardinals’ Nathan Church reacts as he scores as Willson Contreras reaches first on a throwing error by Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz during the 10th inning on Friday.
Hayes’ homer leveled the game again, and in the 10th, just after De La Cruz’s error allowed Nathan Church to break the tie by scoring, Winn added to it with a third two-strike hit of the evening and a second time reclaimed a lead for Graceffo.
“Really good night for him,†Marmol said. “That’s one of the things he does really well. He gets down to two strikes and puts the ball in play. He’s a tough out. That was a big part of how we came through. He took some really, really good at-bats in some key moments.â€
Fermin picked up by Svanson
In the ninth inning, Pages’ second extra-base hit of the game got the potential go-ahead run to second base and offered the Cardinals a chance to pull ahead before the Reds dragged them into bottom of the ninth or extra innings. Jose Fermin replaced Pages at second base as a pinch-runner.
Fermin was eager to take advantage of a read on the pitcher and steal third, but a flinch on a pitch when he didn’t go may have given him away.
He was promptly picked off.
The description Marmol gave of talking about and learning from missteps happened late Friday night in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. Marmol mentioned the flinch to reporters as a possible reason for the pickoff, and at the same time third-base coach Ron “Pop†Warner was talking to Fermin about the same thing. If there’s a giveaway, expect the pickoff.
Fermin’s out on the bases proved less costly only because of what Matt Svanson did next. The right-handed reliever got two of his three strikeouts in the ninth inning to keep the Reds from capitalizing with a walk-off win. Svanson’s scoreless ninth shoved the game into extra innings and limited any fallout from Fermin’s run.
Bullpen picked up by Fernandez
Down the two arms they wanted to rest and running out of options as the game hit the 10th, the Cardinals turned to Fernandez to save the lead Winn’s third RBI and De La Cruz’s error combined to provide. The right-hander most of last season as the Cardinals’ setup man, and he spent all of this season in Class AAA Memphis because of early struggles.
To avoid pressing other relievers into the game, Fernandez had the 10th — and likely would have finished it regardless of how turbulent it got.
By rule, the Reds started with a spontaneously generated runner in scoring position.
Fernandez complicated the inning by walking the leadoff batter.
Staring back at him from behind home plate was Crooks — the same face he’d seen so often at Class AAA Memphis and was now two innings into his big-league career. Crooks debuted at catcher in a tie game on the road, but at least he had a familiar pitcher on the mound. Well, mostly. Fernandez had something new for him — a changeup. The right-hander said later that he “wasn’t really throwing that, so he didn’t really know to call it.†That’s why Fernandez shook off so many pitches. The battery sorted that out on the job.
With the tying run on base, Fernandez retired three consecutive Reds.
The game ended on De La Cruz’s strikeout.
The finishing pitch?
A changeup.
Fernandez picked up the save, his first of the year.
“I’ve been catching him for awhile this whole year, so he knows how I call him, and he knows what I want to do,†Crooks said. “I trust him. He trusts me. Whenever that situation came up, we’re not worried about it.â€
ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ baseball writer Derrick Goold joined columnist Jeff Gordon to discuss the pitching gap between the Pirates and Cardinals.
An excerpt from the Post-Dispatch's weekly baseball newsletter, Write Fielder, that rethinks how to award the batting title to reflect an era without .300 hitters.
Masyn Winn's third RBI and third hit of the game comes after costly Elly De La Cruz error misses third out, opens the way for the Cardinals to win series opener.
For Crooks and Prieto, their first appearance will be their major-league debut. Burleson (wrist) and Pozo (concussion) will miss road trip, timetable TBD.
Cardinals 7, Reds 5 (10)
St. Louis AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Nootbaar lf 5 0 0 0 0 0 .235
Herrera dh 3 2 2 1 1 0 .285
Hampson pr-dh 0 1 0 0 0 0 .167
Prieto ph-dh 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000
Contreras 1b 4 1 0 0 0 1 .253
Gorman 3b 4 0 1 0 1 2 .222
Winn ss 5 0 3 3 0 0 .258
Saggese 2b 5 1 1 0 0 0 .253
Walker rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .229
Pagés c 4 1 2 2 0 0 .227
FermÃn pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 .320
Crooks c 0 0 0 0 0 0 —
Church cf 4 1 0 0 0 1 .107
Totals 39 7 9 6 2 6
Cincinnati AB R H BI BB SO Avg.
Friedl cf 4 0 0 0 2 2 .264
Marte rf 5 1 2 1 1 1 .295
De La Cruz ss 6 2 2 0 0 2 .273
Andujar dh 5 0 3 1 0 2 .361
Hays lf 4 0 0 1 0 2 .262
Steer 1b 5 1 1 1 0 1 .235
Trevino c 3 0 1 0 0 0 .246
Benson pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 .218
Banfield c 2 0 1 0 0 1 .200
Hayes 3b 3 1 1 1 2 1 .241
Espinal 2b 3 0 1 0 0 0 .245
Lux ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 .275
Totals 40 5 12 5 6 12
St. Louis 121 000 010 2 — 7 9 0
Cincinnati 200 001 110 0 — 5 12 3
E: De La Cruz 2 (22), Trevino (4). LOB: St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 14. 2B: Saggese (11), Winn (27), Pagés (14), De La Cruz (27). 3B: De La Cruz (6). HR: Herrera (11), off Littell; Pagés (10), off Littell; Marte (12), off Liberatore; Steer (17), off Liberatore; Hayes (3), off Graceffo. RBIs: Herrera (49), Pagés 2 (43), Winn 3 (50), Marte (42), Hays (54), Steer (63), Andujar (13), Hayes (7). CS: Walker (3), FermÃn (1). SF: Hays. S: Espinal.
St. Louis IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Liberatore 5 8 3 3 2 4 4.32
Alcala 1 0 0 0 1 0 1.42
Graceffo 11/3 3 2 2 0 3 5.77
Romero 1/3 0 0 0 2 0 2.23
Svanson, W, 3-0 11/3 1 0 0 0 3 2.12
Fernandez, S, 1-2 1 0 0 0 1 2 7.65
Cincinnati IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Littell 7 6 4 3 0 4 3.90
Martinez 1 1 1 1 1 0 4.70
Pagán 1 1 0 0 0 1 2.93
Santillan, L, 1-5 1 1 2 0 1 1 2.66
Inherited runners-scored: Alcala 1-0, Svanson 2-0. WP: Romero, Martinez. T: 3:06. Att.: 21,587.
