SF Giants implode in primetime vs. Cardinals
ST. LOUIS » Grunt. Thwack. Grunt. Thwack. Grunt. Thwack.
Carlos Rodón tried to blow first-pitch fastballs by Paul Goldschmidt, then Albert Pujols. He switched it up against Yadier Molina, trying to sneak a slider past for strike one. On each of them, the Cardinals hitters did something nobody had done against Rodón in his dominant stretch of six starts to begin this season: put a first-pitch offering in play for a base hit.
The Cardinals provided a number of firsts for Rodón, none of them positive, in a 15-6 loss that quickly got out of hand and ended with future Hall-ofFamer Albert Pujols pitching to the Giants and left fielder Luis González pitching for the Giants. Eight runs? Check.
Ten hits? Check.
Rodón had a national television audience for his worst start as a Giant and one of the worst of his career. The eight runs tied a career high — done three times, last as a member of the White Sox in 2019 — and exceeded the total he had surrendered through his first six starts this season. The 10 hits were also a seasonhigh; he hadn’t allowed more than three before his six-hit, 12-strikeout performance in his last start against Colorado. And Rodón failed to complete four innings for the first time since last September, when he was dealing with shoulder fatigue.
Those are the ugly totals, but most significant might be the three first-pitch hits, which Rodón had allowed none of in those first six starts, when he limited opponents to 1.80 ERA and vied for the MLB strikeout lead.
The Cardinals knew Rodón could miss bats with the best of them, so up and down their lineup, they hacked at the first hittable pitch they saw from Rodón. Clearly, it was a winning strategy.
Evident of their approach, Rodón threw only 70 pitches before manager Gabe Kapler came out with the hook with two outs in the fourth inning. Uncharacteristically, he generated swings and misses on only seven of them (and only two with his wipeout slider).
Rodón struggled to put anything past the Cardinals, who fouled off 18 of his strongest offerings.
The first-pitch fastball Rodón gave Goldschmidt in the first inning landed in the third deck of Busch Stadium, just above the Big Mac Land sign in left field. Pujols popped a double in front of a diving LaMonte Wade Jr. in right field. And Molina drove in him and Juan Yepez — who singled on the second pitch he saw from Rodón — with a firstpitch single laced up the middle.
Nolan Arenado tacked on two more in the fourth — including the eighth and final of Rodón’s earned runs — with another shot to left field, coming on the second pitch he saw from Zack Littell, who relieved Rodón and allowed another homer, to Molina, the next inning.
No active players in MLB have hit more homers against San Francisco than the two Giant-killers in the middle of St. Louis’ lineup. Arenado’s was the 33rd of his career; Goldschmidt his 28th. The Giants limited the duo to eight hits in 33 at-bats (.242) and only a lone RBI between them during their four-game series in San Francisco. On Sunday, they combined to drive in five of the Cardinals’ 13 runs with four hits — two home runs — in seven at-bats.
The Cardinals’ 15 runs were the most allowed by San Francisco since a 15-3 loss to the A’s in August 2020, the only other time of the Kapler era that Giants pitchers surrendered that many runs. It made for an emphatic way to lose the season series to the Cardinals, whom they have not had a .500 record against since the 2014 season.
Adding insult to, well, you know, Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright held the Giants hitless for four innings, until Luis González slapped a first-pitch cutter to left field for a single. González, who pitched in college at New Mexico, also earned the honor of the first position player to appear on the mound for the Giants this season, after the deficit widened to 14-2 in the seventh inning.
Joc Pederson got the Giants on the board — their first runs in 15 innings — with a two-run homer in the sixth. Pederson had been 1-for-30 at the plate since being sidelined with a mild groin strain and hadn’t homered since April 25.
Before the game, Kapler reiterated his belief in Pederson amid the slump, and just a few hours later looked prescient.
“He’s here because he rakes,” Kapler said. “Every time I look at him, I think, ‘You rake.’ You know how to manage an at-bat and at any given time you could go off and hit three doubles and a home run in a two-game stretch.”
After scoring 49 runs over their six-game win streak, the Giants had managed just two in their past two games, before Pujols entered in the ninth inning.
They’ll try to get back on track in the hitter’s haven of Coors Field, with the first of three games to close out this trip on Monday, with left-hander Alex Wood on the mound against Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela, who they tagged for five runs in a 9-2 win last week.