Cardinals bounce back from opener loss to take series with 5-1 win over A’s

By MATT PIKE

The St. Louis Cardinals bounced back from a series opening loss to the Athletics, winning the next two games to take the series at Busch Stadium, winning 5-1 in the finale on Wednesday night over the A’s before an off day on Thursday. 

Willson Contreras opened the scoring in the third inning for the Cardinals.  With two outs and runners on first and second, Contreras singled into right field, driving in both Masyn Winn and Iván Herrera, Contreras though would be thrown out trying to advance to second by the right fielder Brent Rooker to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Nolan Gorman gave St. Louis some insurance, hitting a solo home run for his 14th of the season.  But in the eighth inning, the A’s got on the scoreboard getting that run back with a solo home run of their own from rookie Nick Kurtz, hitting his 28th home run of the season.

The Cardinals extended their lead more in the bottom of the eighth inning on a triple by Contreras.  After Masyn Winn walked, and advanced to second on a groundout by Herrera, the A’s intentionally walked Tyler Ferguson before both scored on Contreras’s first triple of the season, and his first since 2022 with the Chicago Cubs.

Matthew Liberatore put on a masterful performance on the mound earning the win, improving to 7-11 on the season, pitching 5 1/3 innings and giving up no runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.  At the plate, Contreras led the way going 3-for-4 with the triple and four RBI’s.  Gorman was 3-for-3 with the home run and an RBI.  

St. Louis is off on Thursday and will host San Francisco on Friday.  Michael McGreevy (6-2, 4.17 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Carson Seymour (0-2, 4.74 ERA) for the Giants.  First pitch is at 7:15pm, coverage beginning at 7:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.