Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday Lead Cardinals Rally Past Royals

Before tonight’s game, the St. Louis Cardinals were 0-12 when trailing after 7 innings this season. They are now 1-12 thanks to their comeback victory against the cross-state rival Kansas City Royals.

With the Cardinals trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the 6th inning, Matt Holliday cut the lead in half with a laser-shot solo home run to the left-center field bleachers. However, on a ground out by George Kottaras, the Royals tacked on a run in the top of the 8th to increase their lead to 3-1.

Thus, entering the bottom of the 8th, the Cardinals were losing 3-1. It looked as if the Royals had a real opportunity of breaking their losing streak by stealing a game from the Cardinals.

Hard-throwing righty, Aaron Crow, came in for the Royals in hopes of silencing the heart of the Cardinals order. Carlos Beltran had other thoughts, though. Beltran blasted a pitch from Crow into the Cardinals bullpen–Royals 3, Cardinals 2.

Holliday, who hit his 8th home run of the season in his previous at-bat, went down swinging on a breaking pitch in the dirt.

Following Holliday’s strikeout, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina followed with back-to-back singles off of Crow. David Freese knocked in Craig with a single of his own and advanced to second on the throw to home plate.

The Cardinals had runners on second and third with Jon Jay, 0 for his last 18, coming to the plate. He was intentionally walked to load the bases for Pete Kozma. Kozma was overmatched and struck out looking on just three pitches.

With the pitcher’s spot up in the order, manager Mike Matheny sent Daniel Descalso to the plate to face Aaron Crow. Descalso completed the Cardinals’ comeback with a single up the middle–Cardinals 5, Royals 3.

Edward Mujica came in for the ninth inning to shut the door on the Royals and complete the Cardinals first comeback victory when losing after the 7th inning this season. As it stands, Mujica is now 17/17 and is doing a terrrific job filling in for Jason Motte.

This comeback would not have been possible without the gritty pitching performance from Lance Lynn. Lynn fought his way through a tough 7 innings for the Cardinals tonight–working his way out of numerous jams to allow just 2 runs.

The Cardinals improved their record to 35-17–2.5 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates.