Cards fight but are unable to comback falling 10-9 to Jays

By MATT PIKE

The St. Louis Cardinals battled from behind, but ran out of steam and fell just short of a comeback, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays 10-9 on Tuesday evening at Busch Stadium. 

The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the first on one big hit as Andrés Giménez hit a three run home run to right field, scoring Bo Bichette and Alejandro Kirk.  Toronto extended that lead to four runs in the fourth inning, an Alan Roden single driving in George Springer.  The Cardinals though, tied up the game in the bottom half of the inning. 

Brendan Donovan was hit by a pitch to open the inning.  After back to back singles by Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado with one out, Arenado’s single driving in Donovan, Nolan Gorman blasted a three run home run, his third home run of the season, to tie up the game at four runs a piece.

The Blue Jays took the lead back the very next inning however, scoring two runs in the fifth inning.  Addison Barger’s double drove in Jonatan Clase for the go ahead run.  A sacrifice fly by Springer extended the lead bringing home Bichette.  The lead was pushed even farther by Toronto with another two runs in the seventh inning, both coming on a two run home run by Kirk, which scored Barger, pushing the lead to 8-4.

St. Louis cut into the lead again in the bottom of the eighth inning, thanks to another home run, this time by the other Nolan as Arenado hit a two run home run, driving in Burleson on his eighth home run of the season.  

The Blue Jays managed to get those runs back in the top of the ninth inning.  Giménez singled to drive in Bichette and Kirk scored on a wild pitch by reliever Chris Roycroft.  But the Cardinals refused to go away, battling back in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to a three run blast by Willson Contreras, scoring Masyn Winn and Iván Herrera.  But, with two outs, Burleson grounded out to end the game, giving Blue Jays closer Andrew Hoffman his 17th save. 

Miles Mikolas took the loss, falling to 4-3 on the season, pitching five innings and giving up six runs on nine hits, striking out two batters.  Arenado led the way at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBI’s and two runs scored.

St. Louis wraps up their series with Toronto tomorrow.  Matthew Liberatore (3-5, 3.82 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals in the finale against Eric Lauer (2-1, 2.08 ERA) for the Blue Jays.  First pitch is at 1:15pm, pregame will be joined at 1:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.