Game 132 Recap vs Pirates
Jack Flaherty delivers 7 strong innings to guide the Cardinals to a 5-2 win over the Bucs to cap off an eventful day
Mike Shildt Named Manager:
What a day for the St. Louis Cardinals organization all the way around. The Cardinals started this afternoon by announcing Mike Shildt is the full time manager of the squad with a contract through 2020. Interim NO MORE!!!
What an amazing press conference to announce the move, Michael Girsch could seriously make a living being a mime.
But don’t worry, Jimmy the Cat saved the day giving Girsch his own interview after the 20-30 minute long presser.
The Game:
Jack Flaherty.
No seriously, Jack Flaherty.
That’s all you need to know about this recap.
It seems like every time Flaherty takes the bump, he goes at least 3-5 innings of no-hit ball.
And tonight wasn’t anything different, as he worked 4 perfect innings to start the action.
Flaherty zoomed through the first 4 innings throwing 47 pitches, while recording 4 strikeouts. Flaherty opened the evening getting Starling Marte to offer at a slider and whiff for a strikeout.
Carp & Cafecíto gave Flaherty an early lead in the bottom of the 1st.
Carp reached base with an infield single to the right-side of a shifted defense. How this happened, I don’t even know. With Yadi batting, Carp moved into scoring position, advancing to second on a wild pitch from Nova.
Cafecíto must’ve been looking for an inside fastball first pitch. And I mean way inside. Because he absolutely crushed this fastball from Nova, sending it to LF to give the Birds a 2-0 lead.
Flaherty tossed back-to-back 9 pitch innings in the 2nd and 3rd. He recorded 3 infield pop outs in the 2nd, while picking up 2 strikeouts (Moran & Nova) to begin and end the 3rd inning.
Flaherty kept the pattern going, retiring the Bucs in order to start the 4th, punching out Polanco with a slider to end the inning.
Prince O’Neill added another two-run bomb for the Cards, absolutely demolishing a Nova fastball over the Pirates bullpen in LF, scoring Cafecíto who singled, making it 4-0 Cardinals.
Nova came back to strikeout DeJong before loading the bases by: walking Trap House, infield single to Harry, Garcia fielder’s choice, Flaherty walk.
Hurdle went to his pen with Carp coming up, going with a lefty, Steven Brault. Brault would retire the NL MVP on 4 pitches, stranding the bases loaded.
Francisco Cervelli (of course) broke up Flaherty’s perfect game bid to open up the 5th inning, lining a single over DeJong’s head. But no worries because Jack would induce a huge 4-6-3 double-play ball on Dickerson, still facing the minimum to bring in Josh Bell. Bell doubled into the RF corner, bringing in Moran. Moran would rip a single through Flaherty’s legs, into CF.
Bell would get waved home as Harry would come up firing with an offline throw to Yadi, who would fire it to DeJong at second, who would tag out Moran trying to snag an extra base to end the inning at 4-1.
Flaherty ended his evening after tossing the 6th and 7th, firing his final 29 pitches. Flaherty retired the side in order in the 6th, striking out Hechavarria on a two-seamer to begin the inning.
After retiring Frazier and Polanco quickly to start the 7th, Cervelli would collect his second base-hit to CF. Carp ended the inning in fashion, taking away extra bases from Dickerson, snagging a grounder hugging the 1B line to end the inning and the evening for Mr. Jack Flaherty.
Flaherty’s final line: (7IP, 4 hits, 1r/1er, 0 bb, 5 k’s, 88 pitches, 76 game score)
Notice how I haven’t talked about the Cardinals batting these past few innings, it’s probably because Steven Brault came in and dominated. He seriously kept the Pirates in this game longer than they should’ve been, working 3.1 scoreless innings, giving up 2 hits while fanning 6.
Jordan Hicks got his 8th inning per the usual, offering a leadoff walk to Bell. Moran followed that chopping a single over Carp’s head at 1B, who was playing in on the play. Hicks got his ground ball vs Hechavarria, getting him to chop a sinker, grounding it softly to Trap House for the 5-4-3 double-play, Bell scoring from 3B on the play to make it 4-2. Harrison would pinch-hit for Brault, drawing a walk to bring in the top of the order. Marte reached safely as well, reaching with the swinging bunt down the 3B line.
Shildt would turn to his pen for the second time in the inning, going with another youngster, Dakota Hudson. Dakota would get his only man on 4 pitches, getting Frazier to ground into a 4-6 fielder’s choice.
The Cards added an insurance run in their half of the 8th off newly entered reliever, Kyle Crick. Crick hit DeJong with a pitch upon entering, and Trap House connected with a ground-rule double off the top of the LF wall, originally called a HR. But of concern on the play, Trap House, who would come up hobbling, apparently hurting his groin, and he didn’t sound enthused in his post game interview.
Good guy Greg Garcia hit an RBI single to CF, scoring DeJong to make it 5-2.
The Budman, Bud Norris, would come in to close things out for the Cardinals, tossing a 9-pitch 9th inning to pick up his 28th save of the season.
Polanco would ground out to Wisdom (replacing the injured Trap House) to begin the inning.
Bud then hit Cervelli’s jersey to put him on base for Dickerson. But just like his out in the 7th, Dickerson would rip another ball down to Carp, snagging the grounder, stepping on 1B, then firing the ball to Pauly Deez at 2B to tag out Cervelli to end the game on the 3-6 double-play for a 5-2 Cardinals winner!
The Lizard King (13-3, 2.94) looks to secure the 10th-straight series win for the Cardinals tomorrow night, as he is matched up against Trevor Williams (10-9, 3.44).
First pitch 7:15 c/t.
Thanks for reading, cheers!
Stew
GAME 132 IS IN DA BOOKS
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