Although St Louis Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha struck out the side in the first inning, he was unable to replicate the success that he had in his first outing.
Wacha found his pitch count elevated up to 41 pitches after just two innings. He had just the inning he needed in the third–setting down the Arizona Diamondbacks in order on just five pitches.
However, the fourth and fifth were problem innings for Wacha. He allowed three runs in the fourth and two in the fifth and after getting just two outs, he was replaced by fellow rookie, Seth Maness.
On the offensive side, Matt Carpenter extended his hit streak to 13 games with a triple to lead off the game. Matt Holliday was able to knock him in with a sac fly to center field to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, Allen Craig hit a moonshot of a home run to left-center field scoring Holliday to bring the Cardinals within one at 4-3.
After the Diamondbacks tacked on two more in the top of the fifth, Shane Robinson deposited a Tyler Skaggs‘ pitch into the bullpen for a solo home run–Arizona 6, St. Louis 4.
When an umpire blew the call on a stolen base by Carlos Beltran in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Cardinals capitalized on the opportunity with an RBI single by Yadier Molina to cut the Diamondbacks lead down to just one–Arizona 6, St. Louis 5.
Also in the sixth, David Freese was able to extend his own hitting streak to 14 games with a swinging bunt infield single down the third base line.
Seth Maness was able to successfully keep the Cardinals in the game by pitching two and one-third scoreless innings in relief of Wacha, allowing just one hit and lowering his season earned-run average to 1.76.
The Cardinals were able to get Wacha off the hook in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI single to left by Carlos Beltran–his 38th of the season.
The Cardinals’ set-up man, Trevor Rosenthal, and closer, Edward Mujica, kept rolling–pitching two scoreless innings each to give the Cardinals a chance to get their first walk-off victory of the season in the bottom of the eleventh inning.
Cardinals emptied the bullpen in the 14th, bringing in Victor Marte who struggled to find the strike zone throughout his appearance. He allowed the go-ahead run on an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Goldschmidt.
I would not be surprised if Marte was sent back down to Triple-A Memphis after his continued struggles since being recalled by the Cardinals.
Yadier Molina tried to mount a comeback by hitting a leadoff double off of Heath Bell, but the Cardinals could not come up with a hit to bring him in–falling to the Diamondbacks 7-6.
Thus, Michael Wacha’s final stat line for his second outing was just four and two-thirds innings, allowing 10 hits and six earned runs. Tough start for the young rookie, but one must not forget that this was just his second major league start.
