BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley set a club record by converting his 25th consecutive save and stopped the club’s recent trend of coming up short late in tight games. He’d entered the night tied with Alex Reyes for the previous club record.
Helsley worked around a leadoff walk and a two-out, two-strike single in the ninth inning to strand the tying and go-ahead runs on base and put the final touches on a 6-5 win over the San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field in the “Tribute to the Negro Leagues†MLB showcase game on Thursday night.
The Cardinals (37-37) had lost back-to-back one-run games on walk-off hits at the end of their series in Miami. Their bullpen had been so short-handed that rookie pitcher Adam Kloffenstein, a starter in the minors, made his major league debut as a setup man in the eighth inning of a one-run game.
Kloffenstein retired the side in order to get the ball to Helsley in the ninth, and the Cardinals stopped their losing skid at two games before it could become a bona fide slide.
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Brendan Donovan went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and a run scored in the win, while Alec Burleson went 2 for 3 with three runs scored.
Winn, Donovan make early impactCardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn, the lone Black American player in the starting lineup for the club, and Donovan, who grew up in Alabama and went to college at the University of South Alabama, ignited the Cardinals offense early.
Winn walked and scored the game’s first run on a Nolan Gorman sacrifice fly in the first inning. Donovan followed the Gorman sacrifice fly with a two-run home run that cleared the right field wall easily. His seventh homer of the season gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
After the Giants tied the score with a three-run homer by Heliot Ramos in the top of the third inning, Winn doubled and scored the team’s fourth run on another Gorman sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third. Donovan also doubled in that frame.
Pallante gets into 6th
Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante pitched 51/3 innings and allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks. He also struck out five and allowed one three-run home run.
He pitched around traffic in the fourth and fifth innings with the help of double plays turned on the infield, and he turned the game over to reliever Andrew Kittredge with two men on and one out in the sixth. Both inherited runners scored, but the Cardinals held a 6-5 lead at the end of sixth inning.
A celebration of baseball life
The pregame ceremony on the field honored legendary Hall of Fame baseball player Willie Mays, an Alabama native and former player for the Birmingham Black Barons, as well as the legacy of the Nego Leagues. Mays died on Tuesday afternoon at the age of 93.
Mays’ jersey No. 24 appeared on the grass behind home plate in big white block numbers, a bold reminder to anyone seeing the playing surface.
Three small stages/platforms were placed on the field prior to the game, as well as rows of folding chairs along the first and third base lines.
Two of the stages were behind home plate, each with instruments set up well before the ceremony started. The third stage, placed between home plate and the pitchers mound, included a piano.
The pregame performance featured muti-time Grammy Award-winning artist Jon Batiste. The performance created by Batiste and Emmy-nominated choreographer Jemel McWilliams also included country music artist Brittney Spencer, country music artist Willie Jones and blues singer C.S. Armstrong.
The musical performance and dancing pregame preceded and then continued a procession of former Negro League players escorted onto the field by current coaches and players from both the Cardinals and Giants.
Cardinals Hall of Famer Willie McGee, who played on Rickwood Field during his minor league career in the early 1980s, was one of the first current staff members onto the field escorting a Negro Leagues legend onto the field.
Once all the players and former players were on the field, the music stopped and the booming voice of Giants Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller played over the public address system, stating, “No. 24, Willie Mays.†That started a video tribute that featured a montage of video clips of Mays from his playing career, news conferences, as well as public appearances since his retirement, all with Miller’s voiceover.
Then Mays’ son, Michael, walked onto the field flanked by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and all-time home run leader and Mays’ godson Barry Bonds.
Michael spoke to the crowd and implored them to cheer loudly because his father could “hear†them. After a loud cheer from the crowd, Batiste led a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,†followed by the national anthem and a military jet flyover.
The Treniers song “Say Hey,†inspired by Mays, rang throughout the ballpark multiple times before the game and during breaks in the game.
Another bit of history at Rickwood Field
The umpiring crew for the game became the first all-Black crew in AL/NL history. The group included Alan Porter at home plate, Adrian Johnson (crew chief) at first base, CB Bucknor at second base, Malachi Moore at third base and Jeremie Rehak as the replay official.
While the teams wore throwback uniforms in recognition of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Stars and San Francsico Sea Lions, the umpires wore a memorial patch in honor of Emmett Ashford, the first African American umpire in the AL/NL.