If only the first half-inning counted, Thursday night’s game would have gone well for the St. Louis Cardinals. Unfortunately, the other 8 1/2 innings were terrible as Matthew Liberatore had one of his worst starts of the year and the Kansas City Royals took advantage of that easily beating the Cardinals in the first game of this weekend’s awkwardly-scheduled I-70 series renewal.
If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, Thursday night’s game wasn’t without his highlights, but they are far outnumbered by the disappointments. Let’s start with the very limited positives. In the top of the 1st inning, St. Louis got off to a fast start. JJ Wetherholt led off the game with a single to left followed Iván Herrera being walked (don’t worry, he’d predictably be hit by a pitch later). Jordan Walker then grounded a ball under Bobby Witt Jr’s glove allowing JJ Wetherholt to score giving the Cardinals a quick 1-0 lead.
Jordan Walker would advance to second on a wild pitch by Royals starter Matt Cameron and then former Royal Nelson Velázquez walked loading the bases for Alec Burleson. He would muscle a sacrifice fly to center scoring Herrera upping the St. Louis lead to 2-0. That’s it for most of the happy thoughts.
Matthew Liberatore’s bottom of the 1st inning wasn’t awful with the exception of a 419 foot home run from Bobby Witt Jr. St. Louis still maintained a 2-1 lead with one inning complete. The same can’t be said about the 2nd inning.
It’s hard to fully explain how bad the bottom of the 2nd inning was for Matthew Liberatore and the St. Louis Cardinals. He would not finish it which gives you some idea of how fast this game went downhill. The Royals would hit 5 doubles in the bottom of the 2nd inning alone. FIVE DOUBLES. Here’s the chronological order of events. Salvador Perez doubled. Carter Jensen doubled scoring Perez tying the game 2-2 which would be the last time the Cardinals weren’t losing Thursday night. The next batter, Loftin, flied out to center advancing Jensen to third. Isaac Collins would join the doubles party scoring Jensen and giving the Royals a 3-2 lead they wouldn’t lose. Massey would reach on an error by Nelson Velázquez scoring Collins upping the Royals lead to 4-2, but they weren’t even close to done. Lane Thomas would double scoring Massey followed by a single by Bobby Witt Jr. scoring Thomas. After a groundout by Caglianone, Starling Marte would (you guessed it) double scoring Witt Jr. By the time the 2nd inning was done, Matthew Liberatore would be removed from the game by manager Oli Marmol and replaced by Gordon Graceffo and the Royals would lead 7-2. Matthew Liberatore’s stat line was not pretty. 1 2/3 innings allowing 7 runs (5 of them earned) on 7 hits with 2 strikeouts and no walks.
To the Cardinals credit, they didn’t give up. St. Louis would rally in the top of the 4th inning. Blaze Jordan reached on an infield single followed by a single by Jose Fermin. Pedro Pages struck out and JJ Wetherholt lined out, but Ivan Herrera would get hit by a pitch again to load the bases. Jordan Walker then grounded deep to short, but Bobby Witt Jr. landed awkwardly and was unable to throw to any base allowing Blaze Jordan to score cutting the Royals lead down to 7-3. Bobby Witt Jr. would end up leaving the game with right knee discomfort, but no word on the extend of any injury yet.
The Royals would put the game out of reach in the bottom of the 4th inning when Gordon Graceffo walked Tolbert before Caglianone crushed an opposite field home run nearly hitting a camera in left field increasing the Royals lead to 9-4. Kansas City wasn’t done. Marte singled to left and then two batters later, Jensen doubled to right as Marte was held at third. This would lead to the Major League debut for Maxwel Rajcic who would give up a double to Loftin scoring Jensen and Marte giving Kansas City an 11-4 lead. Rajcic would get the final two outs of the bottom of the 4th, though.
In the top of the 5th inning, St. Louis would nick away at the huge Kansas City lead as Masyn Winn doubled and later scored when Jose Fermin singled making it 11-4 Royals. Maxwel Rajcic would impress in the bottom of the 5th inning setting the Royals down in order 1-2-3 which is the only inning that would happen tonight. Rajcic would pitch into the bottom of the 6th inning with the only other blemish being a 385 foot home run by Salvador Perez giving Kansas City a dozen runs. Congrats to Salvador as his dinger set the home run record for Kauffman Stadium. Well done, sir.
The Cardinals would threaten to make it an interesting game in the top of the 7th inning as Masyn Winn reached on an infield single and Blaze Jordan would double. Masyn Winn would score on a ground out by Fermin giving St. Louis its 5th run. Pedro Pagés managed a sacrifice fly to right scoring Blaze Jordan from third making it 12-6 Royals.
I wish I could say that the Cardinals bullpen kept the Royals from scoring anymore, but that wouldn’t be accurate. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Justin Bruihl would give up a single to Collins would steal second and then score on a single by Lane Thomas piling on the Kansas City lead to 13-6.
It’s been said often in the game discussion comments that the St. Louis Cardinals are fun to watch even when they lose and that can be said about Thursday night’s game, too. The Cardinals would load the bases in the top of the 8th inning again threatening to make it a competitive baseball game, but would get no runs after right fielder Marte would make a nice sliding catch.
Kansas City would add a somewhat humiliating 14th run in the bottom of the 8th inning as Marte and Perez both singled. Marte would eventually score on a passed ball charged against catcher Jimmy Crooks as Oli Marmol put a load of replacements into the game. 14-6 Royals win. Stuff happens.
There were several positives to take out of Thursday’s game. JJ Wetherholt and Masyn Winn each had 3 hits. Blaze Jordan, Jordan Walker and Jose Fermin had a couple hits apiece. Maxwel Rajcic made his Major League debut. The Cardinals offense did its job by scoring 6 runs and hammering 13 hits. We won’t talk about the runners-in-scoring position, though.
The St. Louis Cardinals will try to pretend Thursday’s game against the Kansas City Royals never happened as they’ll send Michael McGreevy to the mound for a hopefully different result Friday night. The Royals have Seth Lugo ready to go for Friday night’s game which will be watchable only on Apple TV+. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm central time.
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