The Orioles beat the Cardinals 8-7 on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium, needing a go-ahead double from Christian Encarnación-Strand in the top of the ninth after nearly blowing a seven-run lead built in the first two innings.
Baltimore came out swinging immediately. Encarnación-Strand and Dylan Beavers each drove in a run with two-out singles in the first, and Leody Taveras followed with a three-run homer to make it 5-0 before the Orioles had even batted around. Pete Alonso added to the margin in the second with a two-run shot — his 32nd of the season — that pushed the lead to 7-0. Nolan Gorman got St. Louis on the board with a solo homer of his own; the Cardinals had just brought him back up from Triple-A Memphis days earlier, and this was only his second game back in the majors.
St. Louis' real answer came two innings later, and it unraveled quickly for Baltimore. Bryan Torres reached on a leadoff single, and walks to JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera filled the bases before Bradish had recorded an out in the fifth. Alec Burleson cashed in two of those runners with a base hit, Jordan Walker doubled home another, and Nathan Church's bloop double plated two more before he swiped third. By the time Iván Fermín grounded out weakly to short for the sixth run of the inning, the Cardinals had erased the entire deficit and squared the game at 7.
Bradish was done after 4.1 innings, having allowed all seven runs on nine hits. “It was a grindy outing for him,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said. “The two back-to-back walks hurt in the fifth… The [Cardinals] put some tough pitches in play that found some holes and kept the inning going.”
Five Baltimore relievers combined to hold St. Louis scoreless the rest of the way, buying time for the offense to find the go-ahead run. Samuel Basallo started the ninth-inning rally with a leadoff hit, and pinch-runner Luis Vázquez moved into scoring position when Cardinals closer Riley O'Brien uncorked a wild pitch. Encarnación-Strand made him pay for it, ripping a double into the right-center gap to bring Vázquez home and put Baltimore back in front.
Encarnación-Strand finished 4-for-5. “He’s kind of a free swinger, but also does a great job managing the at bats,” Albernaz said of “CES”. “He’s never afraid of whoever is on the mound. He’s going to his swing off. There’s very few times, if any, where he shies away from that moment.” Learn more about his backstory here.
Grant Wolfram picked up the win after a scoreless eighth, and Andrew Kittredge worked around a leadoff single and a two-out walk in the ninth to close it out for his seventh save, with Jackson Holliday's diving stop on a ball up the middle preserving the margin.
Asked how important that play was, Holliday said, “Pretty big. If I don’t stop it, [they] probably tie the game and we go to extras, and home team’s at a pretty distinct advantage when you do so. To be able to at least knock it down and get the out was pretty big.”
The win keeps Baltimore 2.5 games back of Cleveland for the final American League wild-card spot and sends St. Louis to its fifth straight loss. The Orioles go for the sweep Thursday afternoon with Trevor Rogers (9-8, 4.14 ERA) on the mound; the Cardinals have not named a starter.