Coming in off arguably their worst loss of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night in Anaheim, Calif.
St. Louis, in a three-way tie for the final wild-card spot in the National League, squandered a 7-0 lead while dropping the decisive contest of their three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-7, in 10 innings on Sunday in Phoenix.
The seven-run comeback matched the largest in team history for the Diamondbacks, who are just a half-game back of the Cardinals, Miami and Pittsburgh in the race for the final wild card.
Max Kepler lined a double over the head of right fielder Lars Nootbaar with one out in the 10th inning to drive in automatic runner Jorge Barrosa to win it for Arizona, which trailed 7-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning.
It marked the first time since July 2010 that St. Louis blew a lead of seven or more runs in a loss. Rubbing more salt in the wound was the fact ex-Cardinal Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to forge a 7-7 tie.
“We don’t deserve to win that game in any way, to be quite honest with you,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. “We did a nice job early getting ahead, but the way that one unfolded … I tell you what, there’s a lot of learning opportunities in that one. It stings. It (stinks), and no one is more mad than me. At the end of the day, we gave that one away.”
Marmol said it was important for his team to move on from the bitter loss and focus on its three-game series against a Los Angeles team that owns the worst record in baseball at 39-61.
“We already talked about it,” Marmol said. “Dwell on (the loss) for the time being, take what you need out of it. Before you guys were let in here, they were already talking about some of the things that we felt that we gave away. Their ability to (rebound) quickly and move on to the next day is, at this point, part of our identity.”
Kyle Leahy (7-4, 3.73 ERA) gets the start in the potential bounce-back game for St. Louis. He will be opposed by fellow right-hander Jose Soriano (8-6, 3.49).
Leahy is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in three career relief appearances against the Angels. He hasn’t allowed a hit over 5 1/3 innings.
He threw three shutout innings and allowed one hit in a 2-1 home win over Atlanta in his last start on July 10. He departed after throwing just three pitches in the fourth inning because of a two-hour, 44-minute rain delay.
Soriano has started against the Cardinals once in his career. That came in 2024 when he allowed two hits over 5 1/3 shutout innings and struck out six in a game that St. Louis used an eight-run seventh to rally for a 10-5 victory at Angel Stadium. Even more coincidental is the fact Leahy picked up the win with 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.
Soriano, the American League Pitcher of the Month in April, is 0-2 in his last five starts following an 8-0 home victory over Tampa Bay on June 13.
The Angels held on for a 3-2 victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon to snap a four-game losing streak. It was just the third win in the last 15 games for Kurt Suzuki’s squad.
Right-hander Ryan Johnson allowed a leadoff homer to fellow rookie Kevin McGonigle on the third pitch of the game but rebounded to allow no more runs and just one more hit over five innings to pick up his third career victory.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever given up a leadoff home run, so that’s a new experience,” said Johnson, 23. “But I was able to stay focused, stay with the game plan and attack.”
–Field Level Media
