PADRES GIVE CARDS TOO MANY CHANCES
St. Louis’ first two runs come in third after Cronenworth can’t get Edman on tough grounder
Nick Martinez made what is likely his final start for a while a quality one. But it wasn’t a victory.
The Cardinals got an extra chance in the third inning and may have benefited from a phantom call by the home plate umpire in the seventh, took advantage of both and held off the Padres for a 6-3 victory Monday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Opening a seven-game road trip, the Padres took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third but went down 2-1 moments later when a grounder up the middle that appeared it would end the bottom of the inning did not and Nolan Gorman followed with a two-run homer.
The deficit grew to 3-1 in the fifth inning before the Padres got a run back in the sixth. Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer and Yadier Molina’s RBI double off Steven Wilson in the seventh inning pushed the Cardinals’ lead to 6-2. The Padres scored once and had the tying run at the plate in the ninth before Eric Hosmer grounded into a game-ending double play.
Martinez, who is likely to return to the bullpen later this week when Mike
Clevinger rejoins the rotation, made it through six innings having allowed three earned runs, the exact qualification for a quality start. It was Martinez’s second quality start and the 27th by the Padres, most by any team.
“He pitched better when he had to,” manager Bob Melvin said of Martinez, who yielded seven hits and walked four. “He had a couple of jams he had to get out of . ... And it kept us in a game. Obviously, when he came out it was still really close.” The Cardinals were leading 3-2 after six innings when the Padres had a
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runner in scoring position taken away on a reality-defying call that Manny Machado had impeded Molina, the Cardinals catcher.
With one out and Jose Azocar on first base after a single, Machado swung through a third strike as Azocar ran to second base. Home plate umpire Lance Barksdale ruled Machado foul-tipped the ball and that his backswing knocked the ball from Molina’s glove. Barksdale called Machado out and sent Azocar back to first base.
“He said (Machado) foultipped it and came all the way around and knocked it out of his glove,” Melvin said. “The timing of that is literally impossible.”
Machado, who had ducked to let Molina attempt a throw, stood up and immediately pointed to Molina, who was picking up a ball he had dropped well before Machado’s bat could have hit the glove.
“You’re talking about Yadier Molina, the best catcher in the game, so I’m going to give him chance to maybe throw him out,” Machado said. “And when I turned around, I saw the ball on the ground and I was like, ‘All right. That’s a foul ball.’ I did tip it and he didn’t catch it. And then the interference call came … that just caught everybody by surprise.”
After a conference with the rest of the umpiring crew, Barksdale changed the call and said there was no foul tip but that Machado had committed interference. That brought Melvin out of the dugout for an explanation, which clearly did not satisfy him. He and Machado departed after a couple minutes, however, with no one being ejected.
Hosmer’s pop fly ended the inning.
Melvin and Machado acknowledged the play did not end up mattering due to the big blow dealt by Goldschmidt. But then, they said, maybe it did.
“That situation, it changed the game,” Machado said. “I might have struck out on the next pitch. I might have homered. Then we’re bringing in our setup man.”
Instead, Wilson began the seventh in relief of Martinez and allowed three runs.
The Cardinals’ first two runs came in the bottom of the third inning after Tommy Edman hit a twoout grounder up the middle that Jake Cronenworth fielded on the edge of the dirt on the right side of second base and threw to first in plenty of time — but up the line. The play was not routine, in that Cronenworth had started on the grass in a shift. But it is also the kind of play Cronenworth has executed successfully so many times he makes it seem routine.
“I feel like I should make every play,” Cronenworth said.
“He went a long ways to do it,” Melvin said. “I know he made a great play and got a lot on the throw . ... He’s really good at it. It’s not an easy play.”
Gorman took advantage of the opportunity, ripping a 2-2 change-up in the heart of the zone a projected 403 feet to the seats above the Cardinals’ bullpen beyond right field.
The Padres scored their second run in the fifth and a walk by Azocar and singles by Profar and Machado created the final run in the ninth. It was the only earned run Ryan Helsley, the Cardinals’ fifth pitcher of the day, has allowed in 172⁄3 innings this season.
“We made them work again in the ninth inning,” Melvin said. “We made their guy throw some pitches. A couple of their key guys had to throw quite a bit today. So you do the best you can to try to nick them up toward the end.”