ANAHEIM, Calif. — As their offense starts to percolate and lift them already this week to consecutive comeback wins, the Cardinals tried something new Tuesday.
They played from ahead.
That did not have the desired effect of reducing drama.
The Cardinals surged to an early five-run lead, misplaced it in the middle innings, got it back with a home run, and then had to fend off threats late to claim a bona fide winning streak. Alec Burleson's two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning regained the lead for the Cardinals and proved enough for Ryan Helsley & Co. to hold for a 7-6 victory Tuesday at Angel Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Orange County off Katella near Disneyland.
The Cardinals have won three straight.
It is the first time this season they’ve done that.
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Helsley took a hard grounder off his glove and still pitched a scoreless ninth to secure his 13th save of the season. On his way to a three-hit game, Burleson’s fourth homer of the season came with no outs in the seventh inning and just in time to make a winner of Sonny Gray (5-2).
The Cardinals staked their No. 1 starter Gray to a five-run lead with an outburst of runs keyed by two batters getting their first hits of the season. The lead was gone within a few innings as the Angels riddled Gray with eight hits, including a three-run homer. The Cardinals’ right-hander found his way out of a mess in the sixth to get the tie game to the bullpen. Gray allowed five runs on eight hits. He had nine strikeouts, several of them to get out of binds.
Cardinals reliever Jo Jo Romero got to a full count with five consecutive batters in the eighth inning as the Angels loaded the bases and then just bungled the whole thing.
The eventful eighth included a flare down the right field line for a double and a pitch-timer violation walk to the No. 9 hitter. Angels infielder Kyren Paris got the count full because everybody did against Romero in the eighth. Romero took too long to deliver the 3-2 pitch and was assessed an automatic ball – putting Paris on first. Another walk followed, and that brought Luis Guillorme to the plate.
That’s when LA did Romero, a local lefty, a solid.
Guillorme lunged for a bunt as his teammate Zach Neto dashed home from third. The squeeze play was over before it had a chance to begin. Guillorme did not make contact, and the Cardinals’ catcher, Pedro Pages, controlled the ball to tag Neto out. The Cardinals held their one-run lead, and Romero kept it there by striking out Guillorme.
But not before getting him, too, to a full count.
Gray’s defiant stand
The Cardinals’ starter and leader of the staff was already 85 pitches into his game and dealing with the bases loaded when the Cardinals made the call.
The pitches that would decide this moment were his to throw.
In the sixth inning of a game tied at 5-5, two walks and a catcher interference allowed the Angels to load the bases. The hard contact of recent innings had given way to the free passes that invited a rally. Gray had just walked the No. 9 hitter to load the bases and bring the top of the order around for a fourth viewing of his pitches. A meeting on the mound was convened.
But it wasn’t the manager who left the dugout to hold it.
Pitching coach Dusty Blake met Gray and his teammates on the mound ahead of the pitches that would decide the look of Gray’s pitching line. Left-handed leadoff hitter Nolan Schanuel was due up. He had already singled twice against Gray. The run he scored in the fifth inning after a leadoff single was the one that tied the game. And still the Cardinals stuck with Gray.
He fell behind with a fastball.
He followed that with a fastball that Schanuel fouled off. Gray got a sweeper over the plate that Schanuel could only flinch at. That was enough. Gray went back to the same breaking ball, just ripped it a bit harder and lower. The sweeper left his fingers at 85.5 mph and Schanuel swung over it to keep the score where it was, strand three teammates, and close Gray’s start with the game tied and undecided.
The game was not won with that pitch, but the Cardinals gave Gray the chance to assure it would not be lost by their starter either.
A couple of firsts create lead
Still searching for his swing upon his return from injury, outfielder Dylan Carlson has had that quest further complicated, his manager said Tuesday, by inconsistent playing time. He’s not getting regular at-bats, and as he returns from a separated shoulder his at-bats are irregular, too.
Carlson started in right field Tuesday night and toted a 0 for 17 start to his season to the plate to lead off the second inning.
The zero ended there.
From the right side of the plate, the switch-hitting Carlson tagged a base hit to right field. That put an inning in motion that did not require another hit to produce the first two runs of the game. Nolan Gorman’s walk pushed Carlson to second. They both tagged up and advanced on a fly ball to deep center field. Carlson scored from third on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead, and Gorman followed soon after on an error by the Angels’ third baseman.
An inning later, the lineup came back around to Carlson, and he worked a walk to load the bases. Teammates Paul Goldschmidt and Burleson had already singled and stolen a base in the inning. Carlson’s walk would eventually get the inning to Pages. The rookie catcher had more promotions and options so far this season than hits. The flyout in the second inning that allowed teammates to tag up left him 0 for 6 in limited chances.
He did already have an RBI in the majors.
His next swing gave him three more.
Pages threaded a bases-clearing double down the third-base line that brought Carlson all the way home from first base and slingshot the Cardinals to a 5-0 lead.
The baseball was retrieved as a memento for Pages’ first hit in the majors.
A single pitch squanders lead
If there’s a pitch that Gray would like to have back, would like to rethink or recall before it left his fingers it was a sinker in the fourth to Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
It did not sink.
It soared.
The Angels nibbled into the Cardinals’ five-run with Cole Tucker’s triple and a poke-check single in the third inning.
The real trouble came in the fourth.
Back-to-back singles from the middle of the Angels’ order against Gray put O’Hoppe in a spot where he could tie the game with one swing. He looked nowhere near doing that on the first two pitches from Gray. The Cardinals’ right-hander got a called strike 1 with a four-seam fastball. Gray followed that with a cutter that O’Hoppe swung at uncomfortably for strike 2. Ahead in the count, ahead in the game, and in the hitter’s head with two different fastballs, Gray went to his third fastball, the sinker. Pages set a target up high. Gray delivered it lower than that, right at O’Hoppe’s belt level. The right-hander appeared to want to drive the sinker inside on the batter.
Almost as soon as he released the pitch, Gray winced with what was coming. The ball left O’Hoppe’s bat and Gray tensed in frustration.
O’Hoppe’s three-run blast over the left-center wall chomped the Cardinals’ lead down to a run. The game would be tied, 5-5, an inning later on a sacrifice fly.