One start and one bad inning into his Cardinals career gave his new team a good feeling about how Erick Fedde was likely to recover.
Given a second chance to make that first impression 鈥 this time in front of the home crowd, decked out in City Connect red 鈥 Fedde remained unflappable despite a defensive choice that could have gone sideways and a pitch count that climbed quickly on him. He stayed steady, got the backing of an offense driven by Alec Burleson and piloted the Cardinals to a 5-2 victory Wednesday night against Tampa Bay at Busch Stadium.
Fedde held the Rays to one run in five innings for his first win as a Cardinal.
Burleson, who went 2 for 4, and Nolan Arenado contributed two-run doubles to an evening of timely offense that assured the Cardinals a series victory just a few days after the doldrums of a shutout by the Mets and a winded series in Chicago. Fedde made his debut there at Wrigley Field, and in his first start since the Cardinals made him the centerpiece acquisition of their trade deadline, the right-hander allowed five runs in one inning. Four of the runs came on homers. Fedde steadied himself in that game to find a way through five innings.
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He took a different route with the same pulse to the same total Wednesday.
鈥淗e鈥檚 even-keel,鈥 manager Oliver Marmol said before the game. 鈥淗e understands the game. He understands what he needs to do. There are times it鈥檚 going to go his way and times it鈥檚 not. He鈥檚 not going to get overly excited one way or the other. That was good to see.鈥
Fedde (7-5) began and ended his start with perfect innings. In between, he had to slip and sidestep around base hits and the two walks he handed the Rays. He did that with strikeouts. Four of the eight outs he got with a runner on base came via strikeout. He got 13 swings and misses in the game, six of them on his cut fastball.
Ryan Helsley weaved through the ninth for his 36th save of the season and second in as many days against the Rays. Arenado reached into the camera well on the visitors side to catch a popup for the first out of that inning. A walk helped the Rays bring the tying run to the plate before Helsley struck out the final two batters to secure his MLB-leading save. Helsley struck out Christopher Morel on a 91 mph slider to end the game.
Doubles will do it
When the Cardinals offense has struggled in since the All-Star break, it鈥檚 been mostly against left-handed starters, and it鈥檚 often for a lack of power. They are near the bottom of the league when it comes to slugging against lefties, and that means stringing together singles galore to generate runs. Power is simpler, more efficient.
There鈥檚 more to power than home runs.
Doubles do damage, too.
In each of the three innings that cobbled together five runs for the Cardinals, a double was the pivotal hit. Masyn Winn led off the first inning with a double. He took third on a fly ball, and he scored the game鈥檚 first run on a ball that ricocheted off Rays starter Taj Bradley. In the third inning, consecutive singles put the scoring chance in motion for the Cardinals, but it was a double by Arenado that cashed it in. With runners at second and third in a newly tied, 1-1 game, the Rays scrunched their infielders in, bringing them onto the grass.
Arenado chopped a grounder that bounded over the third baseman and down the left field line to score two teammates and snap the tie.
In the fourth, Burleson went down the other line for a double.
Spelling Paul Goldschmidt at first base on Wednesday, Burleson pulled a one-out double deep into the right field corner. Winn scored easily from first base, just behind Nolan Gorman to wide the Cardinals lead to four runs.
Quick choice yields tie game
Back-to-back singles put a Rays rally in motion in the third inning, but it was a choice by Fedde on a grounder he needed that helped Tampa Bay tie the game.
Alex Jackson singled up the middle to open the third, and he dashed for third base when leadoff hitter Yandy Diaz singled. That put runners at the corners and the tying run at third with no outs. Fedde threw Brandon Lowe five consecutive cut fastballs to get the count 2-2. Lowe fouled off a sweeper and ignored a four-seam fastball to work the count full.
When Fedde went back to the cutter, he got the grounder he wanted.
He then turned his back on the run the Rays wanted.
Lowe skipped the grounder back to the mound, and Jackson broke on contact from third. The play at the plate was directly ahead off Fedde 鈥 with catcher Willson Contreras set to receive the throw and apply the tag 鈥 but the Cardinals right-hander spun to second base in an attempt for a double play. He conceded the tying run and did not get the double play.
The inning threatened to become more complex with a walk before Fedde got a timely strikeout and ended the inning when Dylan Carlson flew out to right.
The length of the inning and some of the at-bats contributed to Fedde鈥檚 pitch count soaring through the early innings. He pitched a perfect fifth inning, but he finished that inning with his 93rd and final pitch.
Carlson receives ovation, assists rally
In his first in-game appearance as a visitor at Busch Stadium, Carlson received a long enough ovation at the start of his first at-bat Wednesday night that it cost him his timeout.
It didn鈥檛 sidetrack his plate appearance.
Starting in left field for the Rays and batting fifth, Carlson reached base twice in the first six innings of Wednesday鈥檚 game. He turned that first chance as a visiting player into a walk before Fedde worked out of the jam to leave two runners stranded, including Carlson.
In the sixth inning, Carlson鈥檚 single helped spark a rally that could have been much more for the Rays. Carlson homered in his first game with Tampa Bay this past week, and entering Wednesday鈥檚 return to 狐狸视频, he was batting .250 in three games with two RBIs for Tampa Bay.
Fernandez works free of jam
Carlson鈥檚 single came at the beginning of what could have been an upside-down inning for rookie reliever Ryan Fernandez. A Tampa, Florida, native, Fernandez has emerged this season from Rule 5 pick to bona fide setup option for the Cardinals. Hours before the game in his office, Marmol expressed confidence using Fernandez as early as the sixth inning or closing out a game in the ninth.
As if on cue, Fernandez entered Wednesday in the sixth.
Carlson鈥檚 single was the second consecutive off Fernandez to start the inning, and then the right-handed walker outfielder Jose Siri on four pitches to load the bases. He was four batters into the inning and about to face the tying run at the plate. Fernandez found his footing but not without one loud out. Jose Cabellero hit a ball that left his bat at 100.8 mph and soared to deep center field. It was plenty far enough to score Josh Lowe from third but not far enough to carry beyond center field Victor Scott II鈥檚 reach.
Fernandez rolled from there with two quick outs to complete his assigned inning.