Cards post 9 in 8th before making out

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Carson Kelly, left, celebrates with relief pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh after the Cardinals' 11-4 win over the Chicago Cubs in a baseball game Friday, July 21, 2017, in Chicago.
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Carson Kelly, left, celebrates with relief pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh after the Cardinals' 11-4 win over the Chicago Cubs in a baseball game Friday, July 21, 2017, in Chicago.

CHICAGO — For 11 consecutive batters in the eighth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals were unstoppable.

It was an emphatic response to a heartbreaking loss.

Paul DeJong hit a tiebreaking two-run double in St. Louis’ highest-scoring inning of the season, and the Cardinals cooled off the Chicago Cubs with an 11-4 victory Friday.

“I’ve never been a part of something like that, scoring nine runs with no outs,” De-Jong said. “But I think that really made a statement for us.”

Chicago carried a 3-2 lead into the eighth, looking for its seventh consecutive victory. But St. Louis’ first 11 batters reached in its biggest inning since it scored nine in the eighth against the Cubs on Aug. 30, 2014, at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals made the most of a combined six walks by three relievers while improving to 4-4 since the All-Star break.

“We just pitched badly for one inning, and some really good pitchers had a tough time,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said.

CARDINALS 11, CUBS 4

St. Louis blew a late one-run lead in a 3-2 loss to the New York Mets on Thursday. The game ended when reliever Trevor Rosenthal was late covering first on Jose Reyes’ winning single with two outs in the ninth.

Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny was interested in his team’s response, and his players provided an answer.

“I saw a little bit of everything,” Matheny said. “I saw some angry. I saw some, you know, kind of like you got the wind kicked out of you a little bit, and I think everybody needed a little bit of something and that eighth inning provided a whole lot of wind in everybody’s sail.”

Carl Edwards Jr. (3-2) was pulled after the first three batters reached. Hector Rondon then walked Jedd Gyorko, tying it at 3-3, and DeJong followed with a drive into the ivy in right-center for a ground-rule double.

The Cardinals were off and running from there. Carson Kelly hit a two-run double in his first game since being recalled from Class AAA Memphis. Tommy Pham’s two-run single made it 11-3 before Dexter Fowler bounced into a double play.

When DeJong, the 14th batter of the inning, struck out swinging with runners on second and third for the final out, the crowd of 42,186 cheered sarcastically.

“That was a weird, weird inning,” Rondon said. “First time I’ve seen something like that — nine runs with no outs. It’s weird, but it is what it is.”

Willson Contreras hit a two-run home run for Chicago, and Ben Zobrist had three hits. Jake Arrieta pitched 6 effective innings, allowing 2 runs and 5 hits.

Fowler had three hits for St. Louis, and Randal Grichuk hit a home run in his return from a lower back injury. Matt Bowman (2-3) got the final out of the seventh for the victory.

Cardinals outfielder Jose Martinez was struck on the left side of his head by teammate Matt Carpenter’s eighth-inning foul ball while he was sitting in the dugout. He was taken back to the clubhouse for concussion testing.

“The thing was really quick, quick and painful,” Martinez said. “But everything feels better right now and trying to stay like this ‘til tomorrow. Doctor’s going to keeping having to keep an eye on me and see what’s going to be the symptoms tomorrow.”

Martinez said he didn’t see the liner. Asked about missing the Cardinals’ nine-run inning, a chuckling Martinez said, “I think it’s better when I’m cheering from the training room.”

PHILLIES 6, BREWERS 1 Aaron Nola tied a career-high with nine strikeouts in seven sharp innings, Freddy Galvis hit a two-run home run and host Philadelphia beat reeling Milwaukee.

MARLINS 3, REDS 1 Jose Urena pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning, Christian Yelich drove in two runs and struggling Miami opened a six-game road trip with a rain-delayed victory over Cincinnati.

PIRATES 13, ROCKIES 5 Rookie Josh Bell had a career-high 4 hits, Andrew McCutchen had 3 hits and reached base 5 times, and surging Pittsburgh beat host Colorado.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ASTROS 8, ORIOLES 7 Rookie Yuli Gurriel had a career-high four hits, including a home run, and visiting Houston received a gritty pitching performance from Mike Fiers in a victory over Baltimore.

RANGERS 4, RAYS 3 (10) Elvis Andrus had an early home run, then snapped a 10th-inning tie with a two-out infield single that gave visiting Texas the victory over Tampa Bay.

INDIANS 13, BLUE JAYS 3 Edwin Encarnacion had a home run and drove in four runs against his former team, and host Cleveland broke open a close game with an eight-run seventh inning to rout Toronto.

TIGERS 6, TWINS 3 Victor Martinez hit two home runs and visiting Detroit beat Minnesota. Anibal Sanchez (2-0) allowed 3 runs and 6 hits with 5 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings for the Tigers. ROYALS 7, WHITE SOX 6 (10) Whit Merrifield’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning lifted host Kansas City over the Chicago White Sox. Merrifield flied out to Melky Cabrera to score Alcides Escobar, who led off the inning with a single.

INTERLEAGUE

METS 7, ATHLETICS 5 Michael Conforto hit a pair of two-run home runs and Jerry Blevins rescued the Mets’ bullpen with a five-out save as host New York held off Oakland for its third consecutive victory.

Sports on 07/22/2017

Upcoming Events