PITTSBURGH — A flip to second base gone awry threatened to sap the St. Louis Cardinals of the momentum that has carried them from the doldrums of August to the middle of the playoff race in September.
No matter. A series of small moves executed perfectly allowed the Cardinals to rally against one of the best closers in the game.
Randal Grichuk scored after an error by Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer, capping a frantic ninth-rally that lifted surging St. Louis over Pittsburgh 4-3 on Friday night. The wild-card chasing Cardinals won their fourth consecutive, despite trailing by a run entering the ninth against Felipe Rivero, who came in having blown just one save all season.
Make it two.
Stephen Piscotty led off with a double to right, and Jedd Gyorko followed with a pinch-hit RBI single. After Tommy Pham’s single, Grichuk pinch-ran for Gyorko at third, and he scored when Mercer misplayed Dexter Fowler’s sharp groundball. Pham was running on the pitch, meaning Mercer had no time to turn an inning-ending double play. When the ball skittered out of his grasp, any chance to fire home instead was gone, too.
CARDINALS 4, PIRATES 3
St. Louis began a three-game set in Pittsburgh just 1½ games behind Colorado for the second wild-card spot in the National League after taking three consecutive against Cincinnati.
“It just seems this team never gives up and we’re always in it,” said Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha, who worked five innings before giving way to the bullpen. “We’ve been playing some hard games on this road trip and that’s a tough guy to take it off of with Rivero, and guys just put up some great at-bats in the last inning, and we were able to get two across, which was very hard against him.”
The Pirates took a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong flipped a potential double-play grounder high over the head of second baseman Kolten Wong and into right field, allowing Max Moroff to score from second.
St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny called the misplaced lob “a blip.” DeJong admitted he exhaled while watching his teammates claw back in the ninth.
“This game was a good win,” DeJong said. “It was kind of sloppy here and there, both sides really, but we got the win.”
ROCKIES 4, PADRES 1 Nolan Arenado ended Colorado’s scoreless streak at 23 innings with a home run and the visiting Rockies went deep two more times to beat the Padres. Colorado hadn’t scored since the eighth inning of a loss to San Francisco on Tuesday night, dropping two shutouts in between. Arenado sparked the Rockies with his 35th home run, and Ian Desmond and Trevor Story also went deep. Jon Gray (9-4) pitched six innings to win his fourth consecutive road start, and Colorado stayed 11/2 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals for the final NL wild card. The Milwaukee Brewers are two games back.
DODGERS 4, GIANTS 2 Los Angeles clinched its fifth consecutive West title, beating visiting San Francisco on Friday night as Cody Bellinger set an NL rookie record with his 39th home run. Bellinger hit a three-run home run in the third off Jeff Samardzija (9-15), topping the NL rookie mark set by Wally Berger in 1930 and matched by Frank Robinson in 1956. CUBS 5, BREWERS 4 (10) Pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella drew a bases-loaded walk off All-Star closer Corey Knebel with one out in the 10th, helping visiting Chicago beat Milwaukee to tighten its grip on the NL Central.
METS 7, NATIONALS 6 Travis d’Arnaud hit two home runs and host New York ended a three-game skid, rallying past Washington’s watered-down lineup.
BRAVES 7, PHILLIES 2 Kurt Suzuki homered twice, Nick Markakis drove in three runs and host Atlanta beat Philadelphia.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
RAYS 8, ORIOLES 3 Wilson Ramos hit his third career grand slam, Evan Longoria also went deep and Tampa Bay throttled Ubaldo Jimenez in a victory over host Baltimore.
BLUE JAYS 8, YANKEES 1 Ryan Go-ins successfully pulled off a hidden ball trick and hit his second career grand slam, leading Toronto over Masahiro Tanaka and visiting New York, and ensuring the Yankees had to wait at least one more day to clinch a playoff berth.
TWINS 7, TIGERS 3 Max Kepler and Brian Dozier homered, Byron Buxton had three hits and playoff-chasing Minnesota beat host Detroit.
WHITE SOX 7, ROYALS 6 Matt Davidson drove in three runs with his 26th home run and a double, Yoan Moncada hit a two-run drive and Chicago overcame a four-run deficit to beat visiting Kansas City.
ASTROS 3, ANGELS 0 Justin Verlander pitched one-hit ball over seven innings to remain perfect and Yuli Gurriel hit a three-run home run to propel host Houston to a victory over Los Angeles.
INTERLEAGUE
NL wild-card glance
W L Pct GB
Arizona 89 65 .578 — Colorado 83 71 .539 — St. Louis 81 72 .529 1½ Milwaukee 81 73 .526 2
Note: Top 2 teams qualify for playoffs
RED SOX 5, REDS 4 Rafael Devers hit a three-run home run and Boston extended its AL East lead to four games by overcoming Scooter Gennett’s fourth grand slam of the season for a victory over host Cincinnati.
Sports on 09/23/2017