St. Louis Cardinals Blow 4-Run Lead in the 9th, Get Swept by Phillies

Kyle Leahy gave the St. Louis Cardinals exactly what he’s given the team much of the season. He was rock-solid shutting down the Philadelphia Phillies for the first four innings of the game. The Cardinals bats would manage to score against the Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez, but the game would come down to whether the St. Louis bullpen could protect the lead. It would unbelievably not end with a happy flight back to St. Louis.

It could be argued that as JJ Wetherholt goes, so go the Cardinals. That was true in the top of the 1st inning when JJ beat out an infield single, stole second base and then scored when Alec Burleson came through with a clutch two-out single to make it 1-0 Cardinals.

The top of the 4th inning would play out similarly. This time it was Jordan Walker who beat out an infield single and stole second before Alec Burleson singled with no one out to score Jordan and up the Cardinals lead to 2-0. Déjà vu.

Top of the 5th inning, it was José Fermín who put on his “Ferminator” t-shirt and blasted a 94 mph Sanchez sinker 397 feet over the left field wall to make it 3-0 Cardinals. Perhaps it was the belt he was wearing that had his face on it that gave him these super powers?

Where are all the mentions of the Phillies offense? Well, there thankfully weren’t any for the first 4 innings that Leahy was in charge of. Kyle’s final stat line for the day was 4 innings pitched allowing just 2 hits, no runs while striking out 4 and walking 2. Luis Gastelum also kept Philadelphia off the scoreboard as he handled the bottom of the 5th inning. The Cardinals bullpen answer for the bottom of the 6th was Justin Bruihl. He gave up a one-out double to Bryce Harper to give the Phillies a rare runner in scoring position Sunday. Next up was Bryson Stott who hammered a foul ball off of the inside of his foot, but stayed in the game and drove a ball to deep left-center that Fermin tracked down which moved Harper up to third base. He was stranded when Bruihl got Marsh to foul-out to third to end the inning keeping Philadelphia scoreless.

JJ Wetherholt seems to have the eye of the tiger back. After a multi-hit game Saturday night, he had another on Sunday as he came up in the top of the 7th inning after Ramón Urías (who was just activated off of the 60-day IL) and Pedro Pagés singled. JJ ripped another single into right-center scoring Urias adding an insurance run on for a 4-0 Cardinals lead that knocked starter Sanchez out of the game.

It could have been more and almost was for the Cardinals as Phillies reliever Mayza walked Herrera to load the bases after JJ’s RBI single. That brought up Philadelphia’s nightmare Jordan Walker. He lifted a ball to deep right center that was barely hauled in by Phillies right fielder De La Cruz to end the Cardinals 7th. This close to a blowout.

That meant the Cardinals bullpen would have to defend a 4-run lead going into the bottom of the 7th inning. Ryne Stanek was the man with a plan and he handled the Phillies with no problems in the bottom of the 7th with 3 harmless groundouts. George Soriano entered the fray in the bottom of the 8th inning. He also shut down Philadelphia with no issues.

For the first 8 innings, the game went almost perfectly for the Cardinals. Kyle Leahy pitched 4 solid innings as the team is managing his pitch count and the middle innings were handled by the bullpen allowing almost no scoring threats from the Phillies. All they needed was closer Riley O’Brien to lock down the bottom of the 9th inning so the team could have a happy flight back to St. Louis. Bryce Harper led off the Philadelphia 9th with a double into the left field corner. Luis Arraez was up next and O’Brien nursed a weak fly-out to left field for the first out. Brandon Marsh also flew out to left for the second out which brought up Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto. He fouled off several including one painful one off of the inside of Pages leg, but eventually singled into centerfield, but Philadelphia held Harper at third as he’s been dealing with a sore knee and not exactly a speedster these days. Riley unbelievably then walked Crawford to load the bases and bring up former Cardinal Edmundo Sosa as the potential tying run. With 2 strikes, Sosa lined a ball that barely stayed fair over third base and went into the corner clearing the bases and drawing the Phillies to within a run a 4-3. Bryan De La Cruz was the potential winning run at the plate with Sosa the tying run at second base. Again down to 2 strikes, De La Cruz singled past a diving Wetherholt at short driving in Sosa to tie the game 4-4. That brought up Kyle Schwarber with the chance to win the game for Philadelphia. He did not miss a 98 mph sinker and destroyed it 459 feet into the centerfield shrubs go walk off the game for the Phillies 6-4. Unbelievable.

The St. Louis Cardinals return home for a brief homestand starting Tuesday night as they play host to the Baltimore Orioles. According to MLB.com, the Orioles will start RHP Chris Bassett. The Cardinals starter for Tuesday has not been announced yet. First pitch scheduled for 6:45pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.