The St. Louis Cardinals have seen better days. Last season the historic National League franchise endured its first last-place season since 1990, and this year the Cardinals have struggled out of the gate once again.
You probably wouldn’t have known it the way things played out Saturday.
The wheels came off for Boston in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Red Sox allowing five runs in what devolved into a 7-2 rout. Justin Slaten allowed four straight singles and a sacrifice fly to start the inning, and then Rob Refsnyder committed a costly and uncharacteristic error in right field when he let a routine single by Lars Nootbar roll under his glove and all the way to the wall, allowing two more runs to score.
The ugly finish marred what had up until that point been an exciting and largely well played baseball game, though also another frustrating one.
Coming into the game Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas had been among the least effective starters in baseball this season. His 6.19 ERA was the worst among all starters who have thrown at least 45 innings this season, and his 61 hits allowed was tied for third worst. He also ranks in the bottom quarter of the league in most Statcast metrics, including the bottom 5% in pitching run value (2nd percentile), whiff percentage (2nd percentile) and breaking ball run value (1st percentile).
With respect to Mikolas, who has enjoyed success in his big league career, this should have been an opportunity for the Red Sox lineup to break out of its recent funk. But that’s not what happened on Saturday, as Mikolas held the Red Sox to one run on two hits and one walks over five strong innings.
“At the end of the day we’ve got to score runs,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “We can’t play these games all the time, tight games all the way. It puts pressure on the bullpen and at one point we’ve got to start producing runs.”
The lone damage came in the top of the fifth, when Devers hit a solo home run to tie the game at 1-1. Devers has now homered in four straight games, moving him within one game of the franchise record of five straight. That’s been done six times, most recently by Bobby Dalbec in 2020.
Outside of that, Boston couldn’t capitalize on the few chances it had. The Red Sox went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position while Mikolas was on the mound, including a missed opportunity in the first when Rafael Devers struck out and Tyler O’Neill grounded out to squander a two-on, one-out opportunity.
The flat performance wasted yet another gem by Kutter Crawford.
The Red Sox right-hander enjoyed a terrific effort, allowing one run on six hits and two walks over 5.2 innings. Crawford also struck out five and the only run came on a solo shot by Nolan Gorman in the second inning.
Crawford also benefitted from a handful of great defensive plays, including a diving catch by Ceddanne Rafaela in shallow center field to end the first, stranding a pair and potentially saving a run. Connor Wong also gunned down two runners on the basepaths, including on a bizarre play in which Brennan Bernardino — who came on in relief of Crawford with two on and two outs in the sixth — sailed a pitch over the head of Gorman off the backstop. The ball immediately bounced back to Wong, who threw out the advancing Nolan Arenado at third base to end the threat.
Bernardino’s good fortune ran out in the seventh when he loaded the bases with one out and gave up the go-ahead run on a weak groundout to first base by Nootbar. The Red Sox then went to Justin Slaten, who escaped the jam without further incident thanks to an incredible diving stop and throw by David Hamilton to nail Paul Goldschmidt.
Having managed just two hits all game entering the eighth, the Red Sox bats finally got going just in time. The Red Sox tied the game after Jarren Duran singled and came around to score from first on a Rob Refsnyder RBI double with two outs, knotting the score at 2-2.
The Red Sox could have taken the lead if Romy Gonzalez hadn’t been thrown out earlier trying to stretch a leadoff single into a double.The throw beat Gonzalez by a mile but he actually appeared to dodge the tag with an exceptional swim move into the bag. Gonzalez was ruled out by the umpire and the call stood upon review.
But in the end it didn’t make a difference. The Cardinals came back with a haymaker in the bottom of the eighth, and that was that.
With the loss the Red Sox are now 22-24 on the season, have lost eight of their last 11 and are 5-11 for the month of May. Boston will look to avoid a three-game sweep in Sunday’s finale, with Nick Pivetta (1-2, 3.48) set to face off against Matthew Liberatore (1-1, 4.56).
