With his team looking to avoid a sweep at the hand of the Nationals, Paul Goldschmidt delivered when it mattered most.
The Cardinals first baseman, two days removed from collecting career hit No. 2,000 on a home run, clubbed a solo home run in the ninth inning on Sunday at Busch Stadium to lift the Cardinals to a 4-3 win over the Nationals.
The walk-off win was the second of the season for the Cardinals (54-51) and led to Goldschmidt receiving a cooler water bath from his teammates for his 2,002nd career hit.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ entered the ninth inning tied after a combined bullpen effort from John King (one inning), Andrew Kittredge (one inning) and Ryan Helsley kept Washington scoreless after Miles Mikolas allowed three runs in six innings.
Michael Siani, who entered the day with a .164 batting average in 67 at-bats vs. left-handers, hit a bouncing grounder off Washington lefty Robert Garcia that forced CJ Abrams, who was positioned closer to the second base bag, to range toward the hole between shortstop and third base.
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The grounder kicked off Abrams’ glove and allowed Lars Nootbaar to score from third base after he had walked with two outs and advanced to third on a single from Pedro Pages.
Mikolas gets through 6
Mikolas faced one batter more than the minimum through his first two innings before running into trouble in the third inning.
After a leadoff walk to Riley Adams, Jacob Young doubled on a slow roller that bounced off the third base bag and over Nolan Arenado’s head. A groundout to first base from Abrams allowed Adams to score from third base and advanced Young one base.
Lane Thomas, the former Cardinal with hits in the first two games of this series, doubled to left field to tie the game at two runs apiece. Mikolas held Thomas at second base by retiring James Wood and another former Cardinal, Juan Yepez, on groundouts to end the frame.
Mikolas responded to the lengthy inning by keeping the Nationals scoreless across the fourth and fifth innings before allowing a third run to score in the sixth. Wood led off the sixth with a triple into the right field corner and scored in the next at-bat when Yepez flied out to right field.
The six innings and three runs allowed secured Mikolas his 13th quality start of the year. He is one quality start away from matching his 2023 season total.
Contreras provides early jolt
As ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ designated hitter on Sunday, Willson Contreras put his club on the board on the first pitch he saw during his first at-bat. With one out in the first inning, the 32-year-old sent left-hander DJ Herz’s first-pitch slider 407 feet to left field and into the seats of Big Mac Land for a solo home run.
Contreras’ home run was his 13th of the year, his second in as many days and No. 150 for his career. Across July, Contreras has seven home runs and driven in 16 runs in 22 games. He entered the series finale with a .295/.409/.551 slash line in 94 plate appearances before the start of Sunday’s game.
The home run on Sunday also gave Contreras home runs in back-to-back games for the first time since he homered on April 1 and 2 against the Padres.
Pages keeps streak going
Pages extended his hitting streak to 13 consecutive games when he tripled home a run in the second inning.
In a 1-1 count against Herz, Pages sent the left-hander’s fastball to the right-center field gap, allowing Nootbaar, who stood on first after walking in the previous at-bat, to score. After the ball rolled away from center field Jacob Young and right fielder Lane Thomas on Thomas’ sliding attempt to corral the ball, Pages was able to race to third base and dive headfirst into the bag to beat the relay throw from shortstop Abrams.
The triple was Pages’ second of the year. He tripled on June 27 against the Reds, which kicked off his current hitting streak.
Herz keeps Cards in check
After allowing two runs in the first two innings of his start, Herz kept the Cardinals to one hit across his next three innings of work. Following the triple by Pages in the second inning, the only batter to reach base vs. the 23-year-old rookie starter was Siaini, who singled in the fifth inning but was left on base after Masyn Winn struck out swinging to end the frame.
Herz collected eight strikeouts against the Cardinals, who entered the day with a .225 average and a .630 on-base plus slugging percentage against left-handed pitchers. ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ collective average and OPS against southpaws ranked second-to-last in the majors.
Of the eight strikeouts Herz collected vs. Cardinals hitters, seven were swinging. The lefty had a 56% whiff rate on his fastball, which Cardinals hitters offered at 15 times and had an average velocity of 93.8 mph, per Statcast.