Cardinals 3, Yankees 1, and somehow that's a game the New York Yankees could have -- should have -- won.
Wednesday night at the Stadium kicked off with a 68-minute rain delay, and then, just for fun, the lights on the first-base side blinked out twice during the first inning (a real toss-up on whether that was the low point of the night or just the opening act). By the time Will Warren and Andre Pallante settled into any kind of rhythm, this had the shape of a tight one. Then the fifth inning happened, and JJ Wetherholt made sure it wasn't.
The Fifth Inning Sank It
Two outs, nobody feeling great about it, and Wetherholt turned on a Warren pitch and lifted it over Trent Grisham's head in center. Two runs scored. Before the Stadium could reset, Iván Herrera followed with a ground-rule double off the same fence, and it was 3-0 Cardinals in about ninety seconds.
Warren hadn't allowed a run to that point. That's the fifth inning in a nutshell: nothing happens for four innings, and then two swings turn a coin-flip game into a laugher.
(Not that the Yankees let it become a laugher. That's sort of the problem.)
Wetherholt Was the Best Player on the Field
Give the Cardinals rookie his due -- Wetherholt went 1-for-3 with two walks and both RBI, and his double was the swing that decided the game. Pallante wasn't sharp exactly (three walks in 5.1 innings) but he allowed just the one run and got the win, running his season record to 12-6.
On the Yankees side, nobody separated themselves enough to steal the visiting team's star treatment. Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew the sixth-inning walk that put the Yankees on the board, and Ben Rice worked three walks of his own, but a night with eight walks and four hits doesn't produce a star so much as a headache.
The Bullpen Held, the Lineup Didn't
Warren took the loss (3 ER over 5.1 innings), but the Yankees pen was excellent behind him -- Kervin Castro, Tim Hill and Paul Blackburn combined for 3.2 scoreless innings to keep this within reach. Problem is, "within reach" isn't the same as "closing the gap."
The Yankees loaded the bases in the sixth against reliever George Soriano (walk, walk, hit-by-pitch) and actually cashed one in when Soriano walked Chisholm with the bases full. Then Ryan McMahon struck out, the rally died, and the Yankees never got that close again. Add it up: 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, 11 men left on base. You don't lose a game like that by three runs. You lose it by leaving three runs on the table.
(Small trivia note: Soriano is Alfonso Soriano's first cousin. Small world, and a rough family reunion story either way.)
Ryne Stanek made sure the eighth inning didn't get interesting, striking out George Lombard Jr. on three pitches -- the last one 100 miles an hour -- with two men on. Stanek screamed on the mound like he'd just closed out a pennant. Fair enough. He'd earned it.
No Real Complaints About the Process
Leaving Warren in through two outs in the fifth was defensible -- he hadn't allowed a run yet, and it was one bad sequence, not a pattern, that finally caught up to him. The bullpen move after was clean too: three relievers, 3.2 scoreless innings, and the Yankees still had a real look at this into the eighth.
The issue was ninety feet at a time. Eight walks and four hits should be more than enough to scratch across more than one run against a lineup that had to burn through five different pitchers. It wasn't, and that's on the bats, not the plan.
The Yankees are 64-51, 4.5 back in the East, and they just dropped the rubber match of a series that was tied heading in. Losing two of three isn't a disaster. Leaving 11 men on base against a bullpen game is a habit worth breaking before the schedule gets tougher.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
