NEW YORK — The steady, occasionally thunderous offense the Cardinals thought they’d have for most of the season and instead spent all summer seeking arrived like the rain Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium — in furious bursts.
But the Cardinals had more staying power than the weather.
In a game that was doused but never interrupted by showers, the Cardinals twice took a five-run lead, and the second one held as they stormed to a 14-7 victory against the Yankees. The Cardinals got a career-high five hits and a homer from Jordan Walker, three more hits from Paul Goldschmidt, a home run from Luken Baker, and then the exclamation-point three-run double from Lars Nootbaar. All of that outpaced one of the top lineups in the industry. A day after winning their club’s first game in the Bronx since 1964, the Cardinals connected for a season-high 21 hits and had only one inning in which they did not get a runner into second position.
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The Cardinals won the final two games of the series for their first regular-season series victory ever at Yankee Stadium, and they have won three of their past four series.
Walker’s two-run bolt — his first homer in the majors this season — extended the Cardinals lead to five runs, only to see that vanish soon after.
No worries.
So far, these are not your August Cardinals.
In the previous month, the Cardinals struggled with runners in scoring position, hitting .195 as a team with only 12 extra-base hits total for the month. In one day of September, they nearly caught up. Masyn Winn had a two-run double with a runner in scoring position in the fourth. Nootbaar wrenched the game back into the Cardinals’ control with his three-run double and in the ninth, he had a two-run homer to complete his five-RBI game. Both of those extra-base hits came with runners in scoring position.
The Cardinals went 8 for 18 with runners in scoring position Sunday.
The Yankees scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game 7-7. For the second time in as many days, the Cardinals failed to hold a five-run lead, and their starter, Miles Mikolas on Sunday, had been excused from the game.
The game did not stay tied long.
The Cardinals sent nine batters to the plate in the top of the seventh to quickly, assertively regain the lead. All five of the runs the Cardinals scored in the inning came with two outs. Walker sliced a single to center field for his fourth hit of the game, but it did not score the go-ahead run, leaving the bases loaded with the game tied and still two outs. Nootbaar took care of that. The Cardinals left fielder laced a ball over the reach of right fielder Juan Soto that brought three teammates home and sent the Cardinals back toward an ever-growing lead.
Walker’s 5-for-5 day was a first for the Cardinals since those salsa days of yore when Matt Carpenter went 5 for 5 against the Cubs in July 2018 at Wrigley Field.
In the ninth, Walker singled to right field and stole second to get into scoring position for Nootbaar’s home run to the center field. Nootbaar was one of four Cardinals with at least three hits. He led the team with five RBIs, though three other teammates had at least two. Every spot in the order had at least one hit, and only two did not score at least one run.
Walker widens lead with 1st homer
Through his first two games against the Yankees, a flurry of strikeouts defined young outfielder Walker’s return to the majors and promised spot in the lineup. He had five of them over the weekend, including three in his first three at-bats Saturday.
Sunday brought the complete opposite, four hits in his first four at-bats and a long-awaited moment.
Walker drilled three hits by the fifth inning, and for his third hit, he launched a two-run homer, his first home run in the majors this season. Walker’s shot to center field traveled an estimated 422 feet and pushed the Cardinals out to a five-run lead. At that time, Walker and Donovan had combined to score five of the Cardinals’ seven runs, and they were a combined 6 for 6 with three RBIs.
Yankees (inevitably) roar back
It took an error and a play not made to jump-start the inevitable response from the Yankees.
On Saturday, a five-run lead evaporated on the Cardinals, and they spent most of the late innings braced for the inevitable arrival of the Yankees’ leading hitters, both of whom could finish in the top three for the American League’s MVP award this season. On Sunday, the Cardinals had another five-run lead, and looming again on the horizon were those same Yankees.
Mikolas got five batters into the fifth inning and did not retire one of them.
Paul Goldschmidt misplayed a throw at first base for the error that greased an inning that was already slipping away from Mikolas and the Cardinals. More runs came soon after Goldschmidt’s error. No. 9 hitter Alex Verdugo singled home a run, and leadoff hitter Gleyber Torres had an RBI single to shrink the lead to two runs and bounce Mikolas from the game.
John King dutifully got a double play to end the inning.
But not the threat.
Back facing the back half of the Yankees lineup in the sixth inning, the Cardinals began by issuing Giancarlo Stanton a leadoff walk. Another single and a steal began to put the inning in motion for the Yankees. That was when Anthony Volpe skilled a ground ball toward shortstop that could have been an inning-ending double play. The ball took off as it hit near the edge of the infield grass and bounded higher than shortstop Winn expected. He reached up to have the ball glance off his glove. One run scored, but more essentially — the inning continued.
That set the stage for one of the finest catches of the season.
Great Scott, what a catch
With the bases loaded and the Yankees trailing by a run, 7-6, leadoff hitter Torres had the first crack at putting the Yankees ahead after just being down by five.
He drilled a pitch from reliever Riley O’Brien that seemed bound to ricochet off the wall in right-center field. Rookie center fielder Victor Scott II gave chase and deep in the gap was able to reach out and snare the liner. The play turned into a game-tying sacrifice fly — but it could have been far worse for the Cardinals had the ball slipped past Scott’s glove. At least two runs would have scored, and the Cardinals would have been upside down shortly after leading by five.
According to Statcast, Torres’ fly ball to the gap had all the characteristics of a ball that usually lands for a hit, even extra bases.
A ball like it is caught 1 in every 20 attemps, or a catch probability of 5%.
Run out, run in
Long before the game went truly bonkers, the Cardinals and Yankees exchanged high jinks on the bases to spoil one potential rally and fuel another one.
In the second inning, the Cardinals opened with three consecutive hits, including a leadoff double by Brendan Donovan. That became a run with Walker’s first hit of the game, and then things really went sideways on the bases. Walker was thrown out at third for the first out of the inning, and Nootbaar was caught leaning between second and third. As he went into a rundown, Scott did not budge from first. When the dust settled, Nootbaar was out — the second out of the inning around third base — and Scott remained at first.
The inning fizzled from there.
In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees tied the game on Stanton’s laser-beam homer to left, but it was a small-scale play by Jazz Chisholm Jr. that broke the 1-1 tie. Striding off second, Chisholm noted that the Cardinals had shifted their defense to counter left-handed hitter Anthony Rizzo, the former Cub. When Mikolas seemed to ignore him, Chisholm took his chance — and got into a footrace for third with third baseman Nolan Arenado. Chisholm won, and he drew a throw from Mikolas that got away from Arenado.
Mikolas’ first error in seven years allowed Chisholm to score the go-ahead run.
But that was like hours ago.
Things changed.
Time passes.
Errors don't seem to matter as much as they once did.