Reports: Cardinals place Tommy Pham on waivers with postseason roster deadline looming
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Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham could find himself on a third team in just over a month’s span by the end of the weekend, which would mark an end to his brief return to the organization that drafted him and with which he made his major league debut.
Pham, a right-handed-hitting veteran, became one of several players across Major League Baseball placed on waivers Thursday, according to multiple reports, .
The timing of the move is important in that it leaves open the possibility that another team could claim Pham and add him to its roster in time to make him eligible for postseason play.
In order for a player to be eligible for postseason play, he must have been on the club’s 40-man roster by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Aug. 31. Placing Pham on waivers allows a team to claim him and add him to its roster in time to play in the postseason.
Waiver claim priority order is based on winning percentage, the team with the worst winning percentage having the top priority, and the order continues with the second-worst winning percentage and so on in ascending order.
Pham has not been released by the club, and he remains on the active roster for the time being. He was in uniform and on the bench for Thursday’s game.
Pham declined to speak with reporters in the Cardinals clubhouse following Thursday’s series finale against the San Diego Padres, and he cited a desire not to serve as a distraction to the team. The Cardinals won the final two games of the four-game series to salvage a split in Mike Shildt’s managerial return to Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals, who selected Pham in the 16th round of the 2006 MLB draft, reacquired him as part of a three-team trade with the Chicago White Sox on July 29.
Pham and right-handed starting pitcher Erick Fedde came to the Cardinals in the deal that sent Tommy Edman, minor league pitcher Oliver Gonzalez and White Sox relief pitcher Michael Kopech to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers also sent infielder Miguel Vargas, a pair of minor league players and future considerations to the White Sox.
The Cardinals had targeted a right-handed-hitting outfielder in their trade deadline pursuits.
Pham, 36, made a splash in his first game back with the Cardinals. He smacked a pinch-hit grand slam in an 8-1 win over the Texas Rangers at Busch Stadium in his first appearance with the Cardinals this season on July 30.
The Cardinals were 55-52 and just two games out of the last National League wild-card playoff spot through games on July 30.
With Thursday’s win, the Cardinals climbed back to .500 (67-67) with 28 games remaining in the regular season. As of late Thursday afternoon, the Cardinals were 6½ games behind the Atlanta Braves for the last wild-card spot (the Braves’ game was still ongoing) with both the New York Mets (70-64) and Chicago Cubs (68-66) ahead of them in the race for that final spot.
Since he rejoined the Cardinals, Pham has batted .206 with a .286 on-base percentage, a .368 slugging percentage, two home runs and 12 RBIs in 23 games (77 plate appearances).
Last season, Pham went from the Mets to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the trade deadline. He helped the Diamondbacks win the NL pennant. In 50 regular-season games with the Diamondbacks, he slashed .241/.304/.415 with six home runs and 32 RBIs.
Rookie shorstop Masyn Winn earns confidence of club's veteran stars: Cardinals Extra
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Masyn Winn came into the season with a robust reservoir of confidence in his abilities. Over the course of this season, the Cardinals rookie shortstop has given the club’s most-decorated veterans plenty of reasons to become believers as well.
Winn’s two-strike single in the ninth inning on Wednesday night started the two-out rally that led to Nolan Arenado’s walk-off RBI single against the San Diego Padres. Arenado, an eight-time All-Star and likely future Hall of Famer, lauded Winn’s clutch performance.
“Masyn, I think that’s the guy we want up to bat with the game on the line right now,” said Arenado, a five-time Silver Slugger Award winner. “I mean, he’s just so good at getting his swing off and trying to drive a pitch.
“Then, when he needs to shorten up, he does it. He’s just really good. I’ve been so impressed with him.”
Winn added a pair of hits, including a home run in Thursday’s series finale as the Cardinals earned a split against the Padres in Mike Shildt’s managerial return to Busch Stadium.
Winn entered Thursday’s series finale with the Padres leading all rookies in the majors in hits (135), and he has had the most hits by a Cardinals rookies since Dylan Carlson had 144 in 2021.
His now 137 hits (including two on Thursday) also lead the Cardinals, as do his 41 multi-hit games. His seven home runs since July 26 are also a team high.
“I think one thing that just doesn’t show up in the box score is just his baseball instincts. That’s probably impressed me more than anything,” Cardinals first baseman, seven-time All-Star and former National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt said on Wednesday night. “I mean there’s lots of guys with good swings or great arms and stuff like that, but he’s got such an idea of what he wants to do when he’s hitting, and he’s made some great plays on defense. But I think it’s not just a raw, physical talent.
“Obviously, there’s a mental side to that — working before the games, after and during the games. Just to hear him talk, you can tell he’s got a really smart baseball mind. That will serve him well for a long career.”
Heading into this weekend’s series in New York, Winn has a team-high .287 batting average to go along with a .335 on-base percentage and a .424 slugging percentage, 12 home runs and 10 stolen bases in 125 games.
According to Baseball Reference, Winn’s batting average increases in higher-leverage situations.
Winn had batted .265 in low-leverage at-bats, .293 in medium leverage and .313 in high leverage entering Thursday. That would support Arenado’s claim that Winn is the player the Cardinals want at the plate with the game on the line.
In the four-game series against the Padres, Winn went 9 for 17 at the plate. His at-bat in the ninth inning on Wednesday came against Padres All-Star closer Robert Suarez, who didn’t throw a pitch slower than 100 mph in that at-bat.
“It feels good,” Winn said of the praise from his veteran teammates. “I’m confident in myself, and I know that they’re confident in me as well. Having their confidence in me just makes me feel a little bit better and give me a lot more confidence at the plate. Especially against a good guy like Suarez, you have to (almost) swing with your eyes closed. I mean, he’s pretty good. But it’s super special that they think that of me.”
Defensively, Sports Info Solutions credited Winn with the sixth-most total runs saved in the majors this season and the most by a shortstop. He’s also uncorked the seventh-fastest throw by a position player in the majors (101.2 mph).
Winn has turned 86 double plays this season, the second-most among major league shortstops. He has also made a habit of getting to ground balls in the outfield grass and still having enough arm and a quick enough release to throw out runners on plays where a hit seemed assured.
He did so in the eighth inning on Wednesday when he made a sliding stop on a ball swatted back up the middle by Mason McCoy, sprung to his feet and rifled a throw over to Goldschmidt in time to get McCoy by a full step.
“Masyn Winn has been incredible,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “The at-bats have been really good. The defense, I mean, he continues to do things other shortstops can’t do. The play up the middle — how quickly he bounces to his feet and then the arm behind it to finish that play — he made it look easy. It’s a pretty near-impossible play that he makes look routine.
“We have a really good player on our hands. He’s going to help us win for a long time.”
Cardinals keeping roster plans close to vest
Major League Baseball team rosters expand from 26 players to 28 players on Sept. 1, which is this coming Sunday. Though Marmol has declined to give any indication of how the Cardinals will approach their roster decisions.
The Cardinals currently have two pitchers on the injured list on whom they will have to make decisions in coming days, Steven Matz and Lance Lynn.
Matz began his current minor league rehab assignment on Aug. 1. Rehab assignments come with a 30-day limit for pitchers. Matz has been on the injured list with a lower back injury since May 1. He has been on the 60-day injured list, which means the Cardinals will have to add him back to their 40-man roster when he’s activated.
Lynn is also on the injured list, and he’s set to begin a minor league rehab assignment Sunday. He has been sidelined since July 31. He has thrown a pair of live batting practice sessions at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals could also consider bringing up top hitting prospects from the minors for major league experience and evaluation, but they could also consider bringing young sluggers with big league experience such as Nolan Gorman or Jordan Walker back to the majors for the final weeks of the season.
“We’re not ready to share that yet or give thoughts on it for several reasons,” Marmol said.
Reports: Pham placed on waivers
Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham could find himself on a third team in just over a month’s span by the end of the weekend, which would mark an end to his brief return to the organization that drafted him and with which he made his major league debut.
Pham, a right-handed-hitting veteran, became one of several players across Major League Baseball placed on waivers Thursday, according to multiple reports, including one by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.
The timing of the move is important in that it leaves open the possibility that another team could claim Pham and add him to its roster in time to make him eligible for postseason play.
In order for a player to be eligible for postseason play, he must have been on the club’s 40-man roster by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Aug. 31. Placing Pham on waivers allows a team to claim him and add him to its roster in time to play in the postseason.
Pham has not been released by the club, and he remains on the active roster for the time being. He was in uniform and on the bench for Thursday’s game.
The Cardinals, who selected Pham in the 16th round of the 2006 MLB draft, reacquired him as part of a three-team trade with the Chicago White Sox on July 29.
Photos: Record low crowd beats the heat for a 4-1 Cardinals victory over San Diego
Cardinals capture ‘important’ series split vs. Padres ahead of pivotal six-game road trip
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Once the Padres lineup found a way to get on base in the early innings of Thursday’s series finale against the Cardinals, Ƶ starter Sonny Gray kept his plan of attack and mindset clear while navigating through his outing.
“Just stay committed to filling up the zone,” Gray said. “We worked through a lot of stuff this week, and we had a really good plan going into it as far as what we wanted to do. It was continuing just to stay with that. It was a good week of preparation, for sure. I kind of went through all different scenarios throughout the week. Just trying to draw from that.”
Gray retired the first seven Padres batters he faced before catcher Kyle Higashioka reached base on a ground-rule double with one out in the third inning. Gray struck out Tyler Wade looking on a 3-2 sinker that caught the low, inside corner of the strike zone. The Cardinals’ headline free-agent signee from this past offseason followed that by inducing a flyout from Luis Arraez — a two-time batting champion and former teammate of Gray’s while with the Twins.
“(I) made some big pitches in some 3-2 counts,” Gray said. “One to Wade ... that was a really, really big pitch, if you’re being honest. (If you don’t) make that pitch, you end up putting him on. Now you’re first and second with (Arraez) coming up.”
Gray followed the scoreless third inning by working around a one-out double from Jake Cronenworth in the fourth to keep San Diego scoreless as he tossed six innings and allowed one run to help the Cardinals to a 4-1 win in front of an announced crowd of 26,553 at Busch Stadium. After Gray’s departure, relievers Ryan Fernandez, Matthew Liberatore and Ryan Helsley completed a scoreless inning of work each. Helsley’s efforts earned him his MLB-leading 41st save of the season.
Ƶ received an RBI apiece from Paul Goldschmidt, Masyn Winn, Ivan Herrera and Luken Baker in Thursday’s win. Baker’s and Goldschmidt’s contributions came in the third inning and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead they never relinquished.
The win earned the Cardinals (67-67) a four-game series split after and got them back to .500 ahead of a six-game road trip that begins Friday and features three games each against the American League East-leading New York Yankees and the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
“It was important to win these last two. We played them well at their place,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, whose club won two out of three in San Diego to begin April. “They played us extremely well here. Every game was tight, but losing the first two and staying locked in enough and present enough to take the last two games is good. We’ll focus on New York when we get there. It’s just one game at a time. No different.”
The win put the Cardinals at 6½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the chase for the final wild-card spot in the NL with 28 games left in Ƶ’ regular-season schedule. The Braves had not completed their Thursday matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies by the time of this writing
The Brewers’ 6-0 win over the San Francisco Giants kept the Cardinals at 10½ games behind the Brewers for the division lead.
“We all know we need to win games, especially going to New York to play another good team,” said Winn, who went 2 for 4 with a solo home run. “... Sonny went out there and did his job. (Andre) Pallante did his job yesterday. It’s very comforting knowing our pitchers are going to help us out whenever you know our bats aren’t doing the best, especially against two great pitchers in the last two days.”
Entering Thursday’s start having allowed 13 runs in his previous three starts, Gray kept the Padres scoreless and limited them to three hits and no walks through four innings of work. The lone run Gray allowed came on a leadoff home run Padres rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill belted on the first pitch he saw from Gray to begin the fifth inning.
Gray followed the leadoff home run by retiring the next six batters he faced before handing the game to the bullpen.
“He’s our guy, and he’s going to continue to be on the attack,” Marmol said of Gray’s start. “He’s just so prepared, man. You watch him day to day, and you watch how he prepares for his start, and it’s impressive. He knows what’s on the line, and he’s going to give you his best shot every time.”
As Gray kept the Padres to the one run, the Cardinals filled up the base paths and worked up San Diego starter Michael King’s pitch count. King entered the afternoon with baseball’s fourth-best ERA (2.85) as a starter with at least 180 innings pitched since the start of the 2023 season and a 2.29 ERA in six starts since the All-Star break.
King, who threw 103 pitches in 4⅓ innings, stranded runners on second and third base to end both the first and second innings.
The Cardinals offense finally peeked through in the third inning when they once again had runners on second and third base after Alec Burleson led off the inning with a walk and Nolan Arenado reached second base on a ground ball that rolled into the left-center field gap after being misplayed by Wade.
Baker drove in Burleson on a groundout to third base, and Goldschmidt drove in Arenado two batters later when he doubled to left field.
“Getting out and scoring before they do always feels good, especially when you have that guy on the bump,” Baker said.
Winn’s home run in the sixth inning extended the Cardinals’ lead back to two after Merrill’s homer. An RBI single in the eighth inning from Herrera provided some insurance for a win that provides some “momentum” before the Cardinals head to New York and Milwaukee.
“Momentum is always good,” said rookie Victor Scott II, who went 2 for 4 with a double. “... We bring that excitement into the next game and see how it goes from there.”
Padres Broadcasters Don Orsillo and Mark Grant describe the current state of Busch Stadium and the Ƶ Cardinals:
ٳdz쾱Բ”
“NOT the Busch Stadium I’m used to”
“Usually it’s packed”
“Not used to this EVER”
☠️😭
— Cardinals Talk (@theredbird_way)
As the Cardinals welcomed the playoff-contending Padres, one of baseball's hottest teams, attendance at Busch Stadium this week has continued to plummet.
The sight of a mostly empty Busch Stadium for a non-pandemic game was something never seen before by many, including Padres television and radio announcers. It became a big topic of conversation on the team's broadcasts of the games this week.
Photos: Record low crowd beats the heat for a 4-1 Cardinals victory over San Diego
It started Monday night with the first at-bat of the series, when Padres television broadcasters Don Orsillo and Mark Grant started the game talking about the dearth of fans.
"I wanted to get this right out of the way. … This is not the Busch Stadium I am used to," Grant said. "Late August, early September, usually it's packed, the Redbirds are in the race. It is a different vibe here."
"It's shocking," Orsillo added.
"It is shocking," agreed Grant.
"Not used to this, ever," Orsillo said.
In the first two games of the series, the announced attendance numbers were the smallest (27,224 on Tuesday) and third-smallest (28,697 on Monday) non-pandemic announced crowds in the history of Busch Stadium III, which dates to 2006.
But the number of fans in seats was far below those numbers, reportedly reaching a turnstile count of fewer than 13,000 Tuesday, according to a Post-Dispatch report from baseball writer Lynn Worthy.
Those swaths of empty seats were a big point of conversation on Padres broadcasts.
"This used to be one (a hostile environment)," Orsillo said Monday. "This was a tough place to play ... not the case right now. Not sure why that is. The Cardinals are not out of it."
The Padres radio crew was equally stunned by the scene at the start of the series.
"Looking around Busch Stadium right now, remarkable at how few people are in the building," play-by-play man Jesse Agler said on the broadcast. "The Cardinals not on their greatest run ever. Throw in the weather, and I don't know that any of us who have ever been around the Padres have seen this few people in this ballpark."
"Really is jarring to see the amount of empty seats in the stadium," analyst Tony Gwynn Jr. concurred. "Those of us who've been in this ballpark for many years, you've never seen anything like it. At least we've never seen anything like it."
Later in the game, Agler noted that although the crowd had filled in a bit, it was "still a remarkably small crowd here in Ƶ."
The Ƶ region has been under a heat advisory this week, but the record-low crowds began a week ago, when weather here was well below average and what many would consider ideal August temperatures.
Again Tuesday, Agler and Gwynn commented on the sparse crowd early in the broadcast.
"As was the case yesterday, not a lot of people in the seats," Agler said early on. "Stunningly, shockingly empty for a team that is, theoretically at least, in the playoff conversation."
Later, Agler revisited the topic.
"Whether it is because of the corn sweat or the sub-.500 baseball, a stunningly empty Busch Stadium," Agler said. "This was once a baseball oasis, and it certainly can and will be again. Right now, not the case."
"Tough times, for sure," Gwynn concurred.
After Tuesday's announced record-low crowd, Orsillo and Grant on Padres television.
"Another low in stadium history. Again the heat factor has been a big deal here, perhaps... no roof," Orsillo said.
"Or bad Cardinal baseball," Grant chimed in.
"Could be that, too," Orsillo replied.
Heat or not, two games against Milwaukee last week with among the smallest crowds in stadium history each began with temperatures in the 70s, about as perfect as August weather in Ƶ can be.
Through Tuesday's games, the Cardinals have seen the biggest decline in baseball, with 4,061 fewer tickets sold per game.
Last year's full-season average attendance at Busch Stadium was 40,013, while this year it's 35,952.
The team's five smallest announced crowds have all come in the latter half of August. As a result, attendance at Busch, as measured using a five-game rolling average, is far lower than it's ever been outside of the pandemic.
The five-game average is 28,831 through Tuesday's game, about 4,500 fewer fans than at any time before 2024.
Before Wednesday's game, the ticket resale site StubHub displayed numerous tickets with a listed price of $0, though a pair came out to $8 total with fees.
Another record-low crowd at Busch Stadium
The six smallest announced crowds at Busch Stadium III have all come in just more than a week. Through Aug. 29, 2024, and not including 2020 and 2021, which were impacted by the pandemic.
Date
Attendance
Opponent
8/29/2024
26,553
SDP
8/27/2024
27,224
SDP
8/22/2024
28,630
MIL
8/26/2024
28,697
SDP
8/21/2024
29,580
MIL
8/20/2024
30,022
MIL
9/5/2012
30,090
NYM
8/23/2012
30,343
HOU
8/28/2024
30,999
SDP
6/14/2022
31,193
PIT
What will bring Cardinals fans back to Busch? Belief
Ten Hochman: What a world — Andre Pallante is Cardinals’ best starting pitcher lately
How Cardinals youngsters contributed to Nolan Arenado’s improved morale and a walk-off win
Nolan Arenado believes he can still have a positive impact. He still loves to compete. The Cardinals star third baseman hasn’t played up to his typical level this season, but for the second straight week Arenado provided the winning hit in a walk-off win and capped a hard-fought win as his club continues to chase a postseason pipe dream.
The Cardinals used a combination of essential performances from their veteran cornerstones of Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado along with clutch plays from their youthful core such as rookie shortstop Masyn Winn and rookie center fielder Victor Scott II and still-developing starting pitcher Andre Pallante to earn a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres in the third game of their four-game series in front of an announced crowd of 30,999 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Cardinals (66-67) put themselves in position to earn a series split with a win in Thursday afternoon’s series finale against the Padres and former Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt.
Goldschmidt went 3 for 4 with an RBI, while Luken Baker (1 for 4, double) also drove in a run as did Brendan Donovan.
Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante allowed two runs on eight hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out three batters, and he gave up both of his runs in the first inning. Pallante has now pitched five innings or more in 10 of his past 11 starts.
Arenado went 2 for 5 in the win. His game-winning hit came off , one night after he only appeared as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of a 7-5 loss.
“I feel really good,” Arenado said. “Obviously, that day off (Tuesday) helped. We’ve got 29 games now left after today. My goal is to play every single one of them to until we get to the finish line, see where we end up.”
A 33-year-old 10-time Gold Glove winner with eight All-Star selections and five Silver Sluggers on his resume, Arenado batted .300 and averaged 40 home runs and 124 RBIs from 2015-2019 with the Colorado Rockies. He averaged 30 homers and 100 RBIs in his first three seasons with the Cardinals.
Through Wednesday night, Arenado has batted .271 with 14 home runs and 61 RBIs.
“I think at the end of the day what I’ve come to realize is if I’m not going to perform well, I’m definitely not going to be a cancer in this clubhouse to anybody,” Arenado said. “I’m still going to try to help. I can still lead in different ways. It may not be performance, but I can still help these guys out. Spend time with them. Get to know them. I feel like the young guys, the energy has kind of helped me perform better because I just want to compete with them and enjoy it.
“I’m just trying to get lost in the competition. I’m not too worried about what my numbers say. I know they’re not where I want them to be, but I can’t change it overnight either. So I just try to go out there every day and compete. Whatever happens, happens.”
Arenado has been a notoriously harsh critic of his own play. He’s known for taking his slumps at the plate to heart, and he regularly accepts blame for the club’s offensive shortcomings when they’re underperforming.
Late this season, Arenado seems to have found a way not to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders into the batter’s box.
He said he has tried to feed off the energy of some of the club’s younger players late this season and not focus on the drop-off in his offensive production as the Cardinals try to avoid missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season (they finished the night seven games out of the final wild card spot).
Arenado’s 11th-careeer walk-off RBI (his third with the Cardinals) came one week after he blasted an extra-inning walk-off grand slam to beat the Milwaukee Brewers on August 21.
“I didn’t have the greatest at-bats today,” Arenado said after his second walk-off in an eight-day span. “With Suarez, who has got a great arm, I just tried to shorten up. I just tried to barrel it. I didn’t try to do too much there, and I got rewarded for that. So that was nice.
“But at the end of the day, it really starts with Masyn. His at-bat and Victory. These guys just had great at-bats, and it was about time I picked up the slack a little bit. There young guys did such a good job today, and I’m just happy to pick them up.”
Cardinals All-Star closer Ryan Helsley stranded the potential go-ahead run at third base in the top of the ninth inning, then Arenado’s single on the ground into center field concluded a string of three-consecutive two-out hits against Suarez.
The Padres (76-59) had been 50-2 in the previous 52 games Suarez had pitched in this season.
The Cardinals led 3-2 in the eighth inning, but Padres catcher Kyle Higashioka belted a solo home run to left field with two outs against reliever JoJo Romero.
The Padres threatened to take the lead in the ninth after leadoff hitter and former two-time batting champion Luis Arraez swatted a double on a slider well below the strike zone, with an awkward swing and a ball that came within inches of going foul up the left field line.
Instead, Arraez’s ball stayed fair for a double and put the go-ahead run in scoring position with no outs. A sacrifice bunt by Jurickson Profar moved pinch runner Tyler Wade, running for Arraez, to third base with one out.
Helsley then struck out Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado, each on swinging third strikes, and stranded the runner.
In the bottom of the ninth, Winn provided the first drop in the bucket when he shot a 101.9-mph fastball from Suarez into right field for a two-out two-strike single.
Scott, who struck out with the bases loaded in a critical juncture in Tuesday night's loss, flared a 100.7-mph heater from Suarez back up the middle and into center field. That set up Arenado’s at-bat.
“To be honest, in my head I was envisioning my first walk-off homer,” Winn said. “Up until two strikes, I was taking some big hacks. But once I got to two, I was like, ‘I just need to shorten up and get on base.’
“I was more so thinking if we ended up getting out of the inning and if I was the last out, I’d be on second. Then once I got on base I was like if Vic gets out, he’s going to be on second next inning. Then it ended up great. Broken-bat single and then Nado walking it off.”
Scott has batted .238 in 20 games since the Cardinals recalled him from the minors on August 4. The speedster entered the game in place of Alec Burleson as a pinch runner in the seventh inning. Scott then went into center field in the eighth inning and Lars Nootbaar moved from center field to Burleson’s previous position in right field.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol acknowledged he had some uneasiness about removing Burleson with the Cardinals holding onto a one-run lead at the time. Burleson leads the team with 21 home runs and 72 RBIs and has batted .278 this season.
“That’s always such a tough decision, taking Burley out of the game in a one-run ballgame,” Marmol said. “It happened (Tuesday). It happened again today because you look at his defense compared to Victor, it’s a clear upgrade.
“That’s not a knock on Burley. It’s just you use your pieces appropriately. And (Arenado) makes that last out [in the seventh], so basically to get back around to him is going to be tough. You take the defense in the eighth and ninth. They tie it up, and Scott is going to have to take that at-bat. Thankfully, he came through there.”
Scott’s at-bat, perhaps one of the most pivotal of the game, brought Arenado to the plate.
Arenado took a 100-mph fastball for a called strike, then laid off a low and away changeup. Suarez came back with a 101-mph fastball over the heart of the plate, and Arenado slapped it up the middle and drove Winn home for the winning run.
“Anytime, as a young player, you get some hits — especially in big situations — it gives you confidence,” Goldschmidt said. “I think we’ve seen Masyn do that this whole year. He’s not lacking in confidence. I don’t think Victor is either, but it always can build. Just a good job by them.
"Their closer gets two quick outs, and it’s looking like, ‘Oh, man. Here we go. Extra innings.’ And without really trying to do too much — it’s easy to try to hit a home run there — those guys kept it simple and got two singles. Then Nolan did the same thing. We didn’t need a home run to win that game. Just a good job by those three guys.”
Photos: Holy Nolan! Arenado's walk-off single wins it for the Cardinals in the ninth
Cardinals prospect Tink Hence ups pitch count, collects six strikeouts: Minor League Report
Cardinals prospect Tink Hence reached 64 pitches, his most in a game since throwing 97 on May 30, and completed 3 2/3 innings on Wednesday for Class AA Springfield. The 22-year-old right-hander allowed one run on three hits in his start. He struck out six batters before leaving the game with a runner on first base and two outs in the fourth inning of Springfield’s 2-1 road loss to Wichita
The lone run Hence allowed came on a leadoff solo home run in the fourth inning to Aaron Sabato. Before the solo home run, Hence retired eight of the previous nine batters he faced. He issued a walk on six pitches to Andrew Crossetti in the at-bat after Sabato’s homer, but bookended his outing in the same fashion he started it — with back-to-back strikeouts.
Hence’s outing continued a gradual pitch count build-up after he missed a month because of injury. After exiting starts on June 5 and June 23 early because of fatigue and discomfort with his back, Hence returned to the mound for Springfield on July 27. He threw 1 2/3 innings and reached 24 pitches in his July 27 start. Since then, Hence has completed at least 3 2/3 innings in each of his previous four starts. He’s surpassed 54 pitches in each of those four outings.
As he’s rebuilt his workload, Hence has sported a 0.92 ERA across 19 2/3 innings and notched 27 strikeouts.
Here are other notable performances from around the Cardinals farm system:
Center fielder Michael Siani, Class AA Springfield (MLB rehab assignment): After beginning his rehab assignment on Tuesday with five innings in center field and three at-bats, Siani continued his rehab process on Wednesday with six innings on defense in center field for Springfield. Siani took four at-bats and had one hit — a single. Siani is rehabbing a strained right oblique that landed him on the injured list on Aug. 4.
Second baseman Nolan Gorman, Class AAA Memphis: Gorman provided Memphis with its only two runs in a 4-2 loss to Iowa on Wednesday when he belted a 393-foot two-run home run to right field. Gorman’s two-run homer came against a left-handed pitcher and highlighted a three-for-four game from the 24-year-old. Gorman’s other two hits were singles off right-hander Brandon Birdsell. In his first five games since being optioned to the minors on Aug. 21, Gorman has a .263 average, two home runs, and an .879 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) with Memphis. He’s struck out four times in 20 plate appearances.
Outfielder Chase Davis, Class High-A Peoria: The former first-round pick from the 2023 MLB draft went two-for-four with a double to give him his third multi-hit performance in his previous four games for Peoria. Davis, 22, has reached base safely with a hit in each of his last four games and is seven-for-19 with two doubles, two RBI, and two walks over that stretch. Davis’s two-hit game during Peoria’s 7-3 win over Beloit improved him to a .310 average through his first 23 games in Class High-A. Davis’s strong start to Class High-A also includes a .388 on-base percentage.
Catcher Leonardo Bernal, Class AA Springfield: The second-ranked catching prospect in the Cardinals’ system made his Class AA debut and formed a battery with Hence, the Cardinals’ top pitching prospect. Bernal, 20, went hitless in two at-bats and drew two walks in his Class AA debut. His efforts behind the plate helped the S-Cards to a one-run win that required them to use four pitchers in relief of Hence. The 20-year-old was promoted from Class High-A on Tuesday when Jimmy Crooks, Springfield’s primary catcher and the Cardinals’ top catching prospect, was placed on the seven-day injured list. The switch-hitting Bernal batted .268 with 10 home and a .762 OPS in 96 games before his promotion.
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