Cardinals Win a Split in London
(Simon Marper/PA Wire)
While not the slugfest last seen back in 2019 with the Red Sox and Yankees, the rivals of the NL Central made for entertaining baseball across the pond Sunday afternoon in London. The Cardinals who lost the first game 9-1 came back from a 4-0 deficit to win over the Cubs 7-5, allowing a split and no bragging rights between the two clubs.
All seemed destined for another loss as Jack Flaherty, the scheduled starter was scratched due to hip tightness, so Matthew Liberatore took his spot, who has been spotty all year in his starts, only completing six innings once. It didn’t help matters that Paul DeJong made an error on the first pitch of the ball game, and another error occurred when Nolan Gorman made an error allowing the runner Nico Hoerner to reach third on a stolen base of second. He came home on a 2-out RBI single from Dansby Swanson. After a walk, Trey Mancini doubled off the center field wall driving in two. The scoring ended after another double from Miguel Amaya driving in Mancini, all runs were scored unearned.
In an act of serendipity, Swanson committed an error of his own against the first batter, though no runs scored.
It took until the bottom of the second against arguably the second-best pitcher right now, Marcus Stroman of the Cubs, who pitched against Tommy Edman with the bases loaded. He hit a grounder to the second baseman who underhanded the ball to Mancini covering first, but the ball went to his non-glove hand, resulting in him dropping the ball and allowing Edman to reach and a run to score. Brendan Donavan followed up with a single, putting the score at 4-3. To this point all seven runs are unearned.
The Cubs threatened in the top half, but Ian Happ was cut down at the plate trying to steal a run from an unsuccessful double play attempt.
Jordan Walker continued his hitting streak to 15 games with an RBI single in the third though was quickly caught stealing to end the frame.
Cardinals forced David Ross’s hand by pulling Marcus Stroman after 3 and 1/3 innings giving up 6 runs with only three earned. The score became 7-4 heading into the ninth when Nico Hoerner was able to hit a sacrifice fly to get another run home but ended the next batter with Seiya Suzuki struck out.
The key Cardinal contributor was Wilson Contreras, going four for four with two runs scored.
Fun fact: Paul Goldschmidt is the first Major Leaguer to play in five different countries. United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and now England.
The two teams take an off day to rest themselves for the home stretch until the All-Star Break.
