Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado speaks with the media on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, after a win vs. Milwaukee. (Video by Ethan Erickson, Post-Dispatch)
Down 12 games in the division standings and down two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Cardinals kept swinging, metaphorically, by not swinging. A pair of bases-loaded walks by Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham forced in the tying runs that sent the game into a 10th inning.
Then in the bottom of 10th with the score still tied, third baseman Nolan Arenado got the chance to do one of the things around which he has built his identity as a ballplayer — drive in runs.
Arenado got a second chance to change the game after he’d struck out in the ninth, and he cashed that opportunity with a walk-off grand slam as the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 10-6 and evened the three-game series at one game apiece in front of an announced crowd of 29,580 Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
That announced attendance marked the smallest non-pandemic-restricted crowd in the history of the ballpark.
With one swing, Arenado stopped the Brewers’ recent run of bullying that included seven consecutive wins in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The Cardinals (62-64) kept alive their hopes of taking the series from the National League Central Division leaders with a win Thursday.
“That team is really good, and they’ve got some great arms,†Arenado said. “We’ve got to find a way to battle. I mean, we can’t give in. We can’t lose too many more series, obviously. We have to fight.â€
Arenado’s walk-off smash marked the sixth grand slam of his career as well as the fifth walk-off home run of his career.
Arenado’s teammate Paul Goldschmidt had hit the club’s most recent walk-off grand slam, against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 23, 2022. That blast came during Goldschmidt’s NL MVP season.
Neither Arenado nor Goldschmidt have been happy about their individual offensive performances this season. Two of the premier hitters in the game entering the season, they’ve experienced significant drops in their production.
An eight-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, Arenado hit an average of 33 home runs and registered an average of 105 RBIs per season with a slash line of .288/.348/.542 from 2015 through 2023.
Arenado’s walk-off home run Wednesday night gave him 14 home runs this season. He’s now batting .272 with a .326 on-base percentage and a .406 slugging percentage.
“It felt great. I’m happy to get that game over with and get ready for a day game (Thursday),†Arenado said with a grin after the win. “For sure, it’s been tough. I haven’t came through the way I would like. I had a really poor at-bat in the ninth, so it just felt really good to come through for the guys.â€
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the 10th with the help of the automatic runner, an intentional walk given to Willson Contreras and a five-pitch walk drawn by Jose Fermin, who was recalled earlier in the day and hadn’t yet arrived at the ballpark by the time batting practice started.
That gave Arenado that chance to bat against Brewers reliever Trevor Megill with the bases loaded and one out.
“Just get it to the outfield, that was literally it,†Arenado said of his thoughts going to the plate in the 10th. “I was like, ‘You don’t have to do too much here. Just get it to the outfield.’ I knew he was going to come at me with some heaters.
“The first pitch was up, but it was a good pitch. The second one was the one I should have hit. It was down, and I fouled it off. Luckily enough, he hung me a curveball. At the end of the day, I was just trying to get it to the outfield. That’s it.â€
Arenado fouled off a pair of four-seam fastballs to start the at-bat. Then he took another fastball up and out of the strike zone on the third pitch from Megill. That’s when Megill came back with the curveball that Arenado smacked 375 feet down the left field line and into the stands.
Arenado’s stroll around the bases capped a night that included the Cardinals building and then losing a two-run lead. The Brewers (73-53) rallied to tie and then take the lead against the Cardinals bullpen.
Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks in 5â…“ innings. He struck out five in a no-decision.
The Cardinals needed to score two runs in the seventh inning to tie the score 4-4, then scored two in the bottom of the ninth on the bases-loaded walks against Brewers star closer Devin Williams, a Hazelwood West graduate. Brewers manager Pat Murphy earned an ejection for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Brian Walsh after Williams’ outing.
The seventh-inning rally came against Brewers left-hander and Alton native Bryan Hudson. The Cardinals have struggled against left-handed pitching this season, which factored heavily into the decision to recall right-handed slugger Luken Baker from Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday.
Baker, who led all Triple-A hitters with 32 home runs at the time of his promotion, struggled at the plate last season in his first taste of the majors (.209 batting average and a .314 slugging percentage). He returned to provide a bat off the bench to counteract the club’s poor results against left-handed pitching (.653 on-base plus slugging percentage, 26th in the majors).
After Alec Burleson roped a leadoff double against Hudson to start the seventh inning, that set the wheels in motion for the Baker at-bat. Hudson struck out Contreras, and Baker batted in place of the left-handed-hitting Brendan Donovan.
Baker said that matchup and that at-bat was a scenario he’d been preparing for since before the start of the series.
“Obviously, we have an awesome video staff in there that sets up everything we need,†Baker said. “And I’ll go in there and take a look at all the pitchers, especially the lefties there.
“As far as going up today, I knew what that guy had and how he pitched and what he liked to throw. I feel like I knew that yesterday, so today it just felt normal.â€
Baker, in his first major league at-bat of the season, bashed a pinch-hit two-run home run on the first swing he took in the majors this season. The home run traveled an estimated 388 feet and landed in the visiting team’s bullpen.
He described the feeling as “awesome.â€
“I went into the at-bat, had my approach, and took the first one right down the middle,†Baker said. “I said, ‘Well, that’s a pretty bad approach.’ But I think using what I learned last year, I didn’t panic and treated it like it was a regular at-bat, and I was trying to drive the baseball. I got another pitch to hit, and I did it.â€
Baker and Fermin, who went into Baker’s spot in the batting order and replaced Donovan at second base, combined to deliver with a pinch-hit home run, a double by Fermin in the ninth and a walk by Fermin that set the stage for Arenado’s grand slam.
The Cardinals entered the day in third place in the NL Central Division for the first time since June 11. They’d lost seven of their previous nine games to fall below .500. They finished the night five games back of the final playoff spot in the National League with 36 games remaining.
“Credit to Baker to come in here and first at-bat back up here to do that,†Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “That’s a big swing. A couple things happened tonight that from just an overall energy standpoint could propel these guys on a nice little run, so hopefully we can build off of it.â€
Baker, who homered in his first swing in the majors this past week, credits the automated balls-strike system for helping improve his discipli…
Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado hits a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of a game against the Brewers on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, at Busch Stadium.
Teammates swarm ºüÀêÊÓƵ Cardinals Nolan Arenado celebrating his walk-off grand slam in the tenth inning on leading the Cardinals to a 10-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, at Busch Stadium. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com