A wild pitch near the on-deck circle
Andrew Knizner slipped. That was the moment the Cardinals’ night started to unravel for good.
In the eighth inning at Oracle Park, with San Francisco up 2-0, Carson Seymour fired a high third strike past Leo Bernal. The St. Louis catcher could not hang on. The ball skipped toward the Cardinals’ on-deck circle. Knizner chased it down, lost his footing by a weighted ring, and his throw to first came far too late.
Bases loaded. Joel Kuhnel came on. Joshua Baez lifted a fly ball to centre field. Panic over.
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Two homers, six scoreless innings
The rest of it was pretty easy to read. Landen Roupp worked six shutout innings. He gave up two hits, walked four and struck out two. His record moves to 9-13.
He had run support for almost the whole way. Bryce Eldridge launched a solo homer in the first, his 16th of the season. Christian Koss did the same in the second, his fourth. Both shots came off Quinn Mathews, who also went six innings and allowed five hits.
Koss finished with two hits. Reiver Sanmartin, Seymour and Kuhnel handled the rest behind Roupp. St. Louis managed just five hits in all.
Six back for St. Louis
Kuhnel stayed on for the ninth and gave up the Cardinals’ lone run. With two outs, Nathan Church and Bryan Torres picked up hits, while pinch-runner Victor Scott II swiped second. Ivan Herrera then rolled into a groundout to short. Seventh save.
2-1. The Giants (61-85) have now won back-to-back games against a wild-card contender. On Wednesday afternoon, they will go for their first home series sweep of the season. In September.
For St. Louis (72-74), the maths is uglier. Combined with Arizona’s win (78-68) earlier in the evening, the loss leaves them six games off the final National League wild-card spot. They were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, left 10 on base and did not manage an extra-base hit. Three weeks left.
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