The St. Louis Cardinals looked to keep the positive momentum going against quality opponents when the Houston Astros came to Busch Stadium for a three game series. After a series victory against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cardinals kept rolling by taking two out of three against the Astros.
The offense kept the good vibes going and Sonny Gray showed his top-of-the-rotation abilities in an 8-3 game one victory. Game two was a snooze fest for the offense when Hunter Brown shutout the Cardinals for a 2-0 win. In game three, though, the Cardinals scraped together three runs in a big fifth inning, highlighted by a Lars Nootbaar homer, leading Steven Matz and the team to a 4-1 victory before heading out on a six-game roadtrip.
GAME ONE (W 8-3)
The first two and a half innings of the series opener did not have much to talk about other than the Cardinals putting runners on second and third with nobody out in the second inning against Astros starter Framber Valdez (1-2), but back-to-back strikeouts and a 102 mph lineout off the bat of catcher Pedro Pages left the game in a scoreless tie going into the third.
Jordan Walker has been on a defensive heater in the past few games and kept his impressive outfield play up with two great plays in the top of the third inning. Walker nabbed the first out of the inning with a great running catch in foul ground to retire Mauricio Dubon, and then two batters later, made another stunning catch between two other Cardinal defenders. Walker had to travel 145 feet while navigating foul territory and his teammates to make the great diving catch in foul ground.
The impressive defense energized the offense going into the bottom of the third inning. Lars Nootbaar drew a one-out walk and moved up to third on Luken Baker’s single. Willson Contreras, fresh off his best offensive game of the year, hit what looked to be a routine double play but hustled down the line to beat the relay throw as Nootbaar crossed home for the first run of the game. Sonny Gray (3-0) did his part in the top of the fourth and set the middle of the Houston lineup down in order.
In the bottom of the inning, Walker made his presence felt on the other side of the ball when he hit a ground-rule double to move Brendan Donovan to third in a repeat situation of the second inning. Nolan Gorman, who received a rare start against a lefty starter, grounded out but Pages delivered another clutch hit, smashing a double to drive in both runners before Nootbaar did his job and drove in the catcher with a single, bringing the score to 4-0 heading into the middle innings.
The Cardinals kept up the pressure on Valdes in the fifth when Contreras led off with a single. Nolan Arenado and Donovan then hit back-to-back doubles to drive in two more runs before Donovan was knocked in on a Gorman sacrifice fly to the center firled warning track. All seven runs the Cardinals scored to that point were charged to the Astros starter.
Gray was coming off a solid five-inning start against the Pirates and continued his positive momentum as the leader of the pitching staff. Staked to an early lead, the right-hander was able to keep the Astros off the board through his seven-inning start. Gray ended up striking out four hitters and only gave up three hits while not giving up a homer for the first time this season. To further help the starter out, Arenado added another extra-base hit to his performance, and this time was able to take a nice jog around the bases thanks to a 379 foot home run to make the score 8-0. Arenado’s second homer of the year was clocked at 100.2 mph off the bat.
St. Louis looked to finish off their third shutout in the past four days and called on Roddery Munoz to end the game. Munoz, who was making his second appearance since being called up to replace the struggling Chris Roycroft, ran into some problems of his own in the top of the ninth. The reliever walked the leadoff man and gave up a single but looked to tightrope out of danger after getting two outs. Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena was not ready to call it a day yet and deposited a Munoz fastball 407 feet to left-center field. Munoz would bounce back on the next pitch, getting a groundout to end the game with an 8-3 Cardinal victory.
GAME TWO (L 2-0)
The Cardinals looked to keep the momentum going after a big win in the first game of the series but had a tough task in game two, going up against young right-hander Hunter Brown (2-1), who was coming off a six-inning shutout of the Seattle Mariners. After Erick Fedde (1-2) put the Astros down in order in the first, the Cardinals looked like they would cash in early against Brown.
As he has done all season long, Lars Nootbaar started off the bottom of the first getting on base with a walk and Willson Contreras, who is breaking out of his early season slump, hit into an unlucky out with a 101 mph line out to left. Nootbaar stole second during Nolan Arenado’s at-bat then moved up to third when Arenado popped a single down the line to right but the threat would end on an Alec Burleson foul popout.
The starters continued to trade zeroes but the Cardinals put the pressure on Brown again in the bottom of the fourth. Brendan Donovan, one of top hitters in all of baseball, led off with a double and moved to third on a one-out single from Burleson. Burly moved up to second with his first stolen base of the year but a Jordan Walker popout and Nolan Gorman strikeout ended the threat and kept the game scoreless going into the fifth.
Fedde was the first pitcher to crack in the duel as the Astros finally got to the Cardinals starter in the sixth inning. Jeremy Pena, who ruined the shutout in Monday’s game, started the inning off with a double but, unlike the Cardinals in innings prior, the Astros cashed in with a runner in scoring position. Jake Meyers hit a bloop to right field that Jordan Walker came up with and made a strong throw to the plate but Pena’s speed was too much and he slid in right before the tag. Fedde’s day ended after the sixth inning as he logged his third quality start of the season.
The Astros second run of the game came off of reliever Kyle Leahy, who has been nothing short of spectacular so far this season. In his second inning of work, Leahy hung a changeup to power hitter Yordan Alvarez, who deposited it 419 feet away onto Freese’s Landing to give Houston a little breathing room going into the final two innings.
Once again, the Cardinals had an opportunity to score thanks to another Nootbaar double, but the team stranded him at third, making the team 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on the day. Astros closer Josh Hader pitched the ninth inning and did not give the Cardinals any chance to mount a comeback, setting the side down in order, setting up a rubber match in game three of the series on Wednesday afternoon.
GAME THREE (W 4-1)
The Cardinals officially moved to a six-man rotation for Wednesday’s game, moving lefty Steven Matz (1-0) from a long-relief role to a starting spot for the next couple weeks at least. After a shaky start to the game where Matz allowed a run to score, the left-hander settled in nicely despite a 60-65 pitch limit.
The Astros countered with Ronel Blanco (1-2) who looked to be on his way to shutting down the Cardinals offense for the second straight day after four quality innings of work. Things unraveled for Blanco quickly in the fifth thanks to a gorgeous leadoff bunt by Victor Scott II that sat on the foul line for a hit. Thomas Saggese, who may be competing to stay on the big league roster when Masyn Winn returns from injury, battled with two strikes before poking a soft pop up in front of the right fielder that put runners on first and third. This brought up Lars Nootbaar, who was unfazed in his first two at-bats against the Astros righty, taking two walks but Noot was not looking to walk this time. After working to a 2-1 count, the left fielder took advantage of a hanging nothing ball from Blanco and deposited it onto Freese’s Landing to put the Cardinals ahead 3-1.
With the lead, the Cardinals turned to Ryan Fernandez in the sixth and he did his job to keep the game where it was, tallying a strikeout in his single inning of work. After playing a big role in the scoring in the fifth, Saggese wanted another tally in the box score in the following inning and drove in Jordan Walker with a double to right field, bringing the Cardinal lead to 4-1. The bullpen continued to do their job the rest of the way with Kyle Leahy, who threw two innings in Tuesday’s game, handling the 7th with no problem before Phil Maton set the ‘Stros down in order in the 8th.
Closer Ryan Helsley took the mound for the first time in five days and looked fresh in his outing. Helsley hit 100 mph multiple times and, despite a one-out walk to Isaac Paredes, looked to be in control on the way to his third save of the season.
The series win moves the Cardinals to 9-9 on the year with plenty of good vibes heading into a tough road series starting in New York on Thursday. The Cardinals will take on the NL East-leading Mets before finishing the roadtrip in Atlanta, who are moving in the right direction after a rough start to the year.
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