Game 74 Recap vs Brewers

Let It Be: Flaherty’s 6.1 No-Hit Innings Not Enough in Brutal 2-1 Loss to Brewers

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom

“Let it be”

And in my hour of darkness

She is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom

“Let it be”

Jack Flaherty turned in his second 13 strikeout performance of the season, carrying a no-hitter into the 7th inning- how do you think this one ended? You could probably guess.

Both teams had an eye-popping three hits. Matt Carpenter, leadoff guy, got the first one out of the way early, smacking a leadoff double into the RCF gap, advancing to 3B on a wild pitch from Guerra with Pham at the plate. Pham would go down on strikes, getting rung up on a terrible call from home plate umpire, Tim Timmons. After Cafecíto popped out to Villar on the first pitch, Pham would get tossed by Timmons with Swags Ozuna digging into the box. Matheny nonchalantly jogged out to confront Timmons, they two engaged in a non-heated, casual, conversation. Some player’s manager, huh?

Matt Carpenter would lead off the top of the 3rd with a walk, getting sacrificed over to 2B on a bunt from Bader. After Cafecíto struck out, Swags would deliver with an RBI base hit up the middle, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Before this story takes a turn for the worse in the later half, I wanted to run through all of Jack Flaherty’s strikeouts.

1st inning (2): Thames (looking, 95mph FB) , Yelich (looking, 94mph FB)

2nd inning (1): Piña (swinging, 94mph FB)

3rd inning (3): Arcia (swinging, 84mph SL), Guerra (looking, 95mph FB), Thames (swinging, 83mph slider)

4th inning (1): Shaw (swinging, 84mph SL)

5th inning (1): Piña (swinging, 85mph SL)

6th inning (3): Pérez (swinging, 95mph FB), Yelich (swinging, 84mph SL), Cain (looking, 95mph FB)

7th inning (2): Shaw (looking, 95mph FB), Piña (looking, 96mph FB)

Jack was painting all night. It really was a beautiful performance.

In between all of this, Jim Hayes got the chance to interview a wonderful lady named, Mary. Mary was crocheting blankets for a local children’s hospital behind home plate, and she had a weird way of inspiring this post.

Because with the highs and lows of this game, let it be.

The Crew bullpen (Hader*, Barnes, Jeffress, & Knebel) would toss 4 hitless/scoreless innings, striking out 8, bringing the Cardinals game total to 15.

After Yadi opened the top of the 6th with a single to LF, the last Cardinal hit of the night, Guerra would walk Fowler, spelling the end of his night. Counsell would turn to his best option, in the 6th inning, in a one run game, in the highest leverage situation, how sweet it must be. That option? Josh Hader. Hader did Hader things and all I could hear in my head was Dan Plesac yelling “HADERADE!”

Guerra’s final line: (5 IP, 3 hits, 1r/1er, 4 bb, 7 k’s, 106 pitches)

Jesús Aguilar would break up Flaherty’s no-hit bid with one out in the bottom of the 7th, hitting a one handed, solo HR to LCF to tie it 1-1. Aguilar would take a slider low and muscle it deep, incredible strength, and he wasn’t finished.

Flaherty’s final line: (7 IP, 1 hit, 1r/1er, 2 bb, 13 k’s, 110 pitches)

Yairo Muñoz and “Nerd Power” Eric Sogard would spark some fireworks in the bottom of the 8th. Sogard led off the inning with a single to CF off the flame-throwing reliever, Jordan Hicks.

Pérez would attempt to sac-bunt, bunting back to Hicks, who fired to Muñoz covering 2B. The throw would cause Muñoz to reach back, causing Sogard to slide directly into him and the bag (maybe a little to the left of the bag, like a lot). Sogard apparently didn’t like it for some reason, spitting some words to Muñoz, who probably mumbled back some Spanish curse words.

This caused a benches clearing scuffle, and I wouldn’t even call it that. But Tsunami, Tui, and the bullpens were ready to throw hands, let’s say that.

The camera shot of bullpens running out to a scuffle always cracks me up.

Jesús Aguilar ended this contest in the bottom of the 9th with one out against Bud Norris. Aguilar would connect with his 2nd HR of the game, the Brewers 3rd hit, taking the Norris fastball to RCF for the Brewers walk-off, 2-1 win.

And when the brokenhearted people

Living in the world agree

There will be an answer

Let it be

The Lizard King (7-2, 2.69) looks to get his heart broken next, probably because of a lack of run support. He will take on the righty, Chase Anderson (5-6, 4.54).

First pitch 3:10 c/t.

Thanks for reading, cheers!

Stew

Game 74 = In the books