Matthew Liberator gave the St. Louis Cardinals the strong start they needed to rock the West Coast, and his nasty curveball and Alec Burleson’s power surge lifted the St. Louis Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.
Matthew Liberatore looked shaky and nasty in the bottom half of the first inning. After his first two outs, he walked Manny Machado. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled to left to advance Machado to second, and Xander Bogaerts’ single to right scored Machado and gave the Padres a 1-0 lead.
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The St. Louis Cardinals’ bats stayed quiet until the top of the 4th inning, when Alec Burleson caught a pitch from Michael King and drove the ball over the right field wall with an impressive 111 mph exit velocity to tie the game at 1-1.
After what looked like a tenuous first inning, Matthew Liberatore put the Padres in trouble, allowing the Cardinals to go six strong innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits, six strikeouts and three walks. Michael King was equally impressive for San Diego, pitching six solid innings and allowing just one hit, but that one was a walk-off hit from Burleson.
The Cardinals took the lead in the top of the seventh inning when Jordan Walker missed a home run by a foot, hitting a line drive over the left field wall for a double. Then, when Masyn Winn hit the ball down the right-field line to a helpless-looking Nick Castellanos, Nick Castellanos stumbled toward the ball, and the ball bounced past him and continued toward the right-field wall, scoring Walker, Winn racing to third base, and St. Louis leading 2-1.
George Soriano entered the game in the bottom of the 7th inning, giving up an infield single to Tatis Jr., but he was plated by Pedro Pagés, although the Padres were unsuccessful in challenging J.J. Wetherholt’s tag. A steal in the seventh inning blunted any potential threat from the Padres.
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The bottom half of the 8th inning belonged to Jojo Romero. He had no problem with Ty France, Nick Castellanos or Rudolf Duran shutting down the Padres in a 1-2-3. It helped that the Cardinals didn’t have to deal with super reliever Mason Miller, and San Diego brought on Jason Adam to handle the top of the ninth inning as they still trailed 2-1. He was greeted by Jordan Walker, who fired a laser shot to left-center that turned into a quick double. Nolan Gorman then helped Adam on the 9-section walk. Yes, miracles do happen. Unfortunately, Masyn Winn couldn’t get enough bunts as the Padres were able to get a leadoff at third base. Nathan Church hit a weak fly ball to left field to second, but neither player advanced. Pedro Pagos retired the final out of the game, stopping the Cardinals’ eighth-inning threat.
Riley O’Brien came on in the bottom of the ninth inning to end the Padres’ run. He’ll be tasked with facing San Diego’s top lineup. He soon retired Merrill on a weak ground out to J.J. Wetherholt. Miguel Andujar struck out but failed to challenge with ABS, which probably wouldn’t have saved him anyway. Manny Machado struck out Masyn Winn to end the game and the Cardinals narrowly missed out.
The St. Louis Cardinals will send Michael McGreevey to Friday night’s game against Griffin Canning. The first rollout is scheduled for 8:45 PM Central Time and will be exclusive to Apple TV, so you can find a seven-day free trial.
