Cardinals Use Small-Ball Tactics to Beat Tigers in Series Finale

· Yahoo Sports

A timely bunt, some aggressive base-running, a strong, bounce-back outing by Kyle Leahy and Iván Herrera’stwo-run single allowed the Cardinals to beat the Tigers 5-4 on Sunday night even though they didn’t have an extra-base hit in the finale of the three-game series. 

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The Cardinals wiped out a 2-0 deficit with four runs in the fifth inning. Victor Scott’s sacrifice bunt – one that resulted in a throwing error by Detroit reliever Emmanuel De Jesus – got the game tied and flipped the tenor of the night in favor of the Cardinals.

Here are three takeaways from the Cardinals first road win of the season – one that allowed them to avoid being swept by the Tigers:

Small ball leads to big results

Not only did Pedro Pages drive in the first run of the night for the Cardinals in the fifth inning, but scrappy outfielder Nathan Church aggressively went from first to third on the single when Riley Greene casually fielded the ball. Church then scored to tie the game when De Jesus spiked the ball after Scott laid down a perfect bunt. 

Two batters later, Herrera hit a hanging cutter on the outer half to right field to plate Pages and Scott to give the Cards their first lead of the night. 

Then, after the Tigers got within 4-3 in the sixth, the Cards used more small ball tactics to rebuild their lead in the seventh. Standout rookie JJ Wetherholt deftly went the other way for a single to lead off the inning and then he moved to third on a Herrera walk and a deep fly ball by Alec Burleson. After Jordan Walker walked, Nolan Gorman did his job by lifting a sacrifice fly into left to plate Wetherholt.

The Cardinals had just six hits – one each by six different players. Walker, who had a bloop single in his first at bat to continue his offensive surge, credited Herrera with the biggest blow of the night.

“Iván or our bullpen,” Walker said on Peacock Network when asked for his Player of the Game. “(Ryne) Stanek held it down and Riley (O’Brien) held it down. But Iván had that big hit – I don’t remember what inning it was – but that was a big hit for two runs. That was pretty sick, so I’d give it to Iván, for sure.”

Cardinals' outfielders Nathan Church (left), Victor Scott II (center) and Jordan Walker (right) celebrate their 5-3 win over the Tigers on Sunday night. -- Lon Horwedel-Imagn ImagesLeahy shows massive game-to-game improvement

When Leahy allowed four runs in five-plus innings of work and lost to the Mets in his first start of the season, the Cardinals expressed confidence that the right-hander would be significantly better in his next time out because of his ability to adept from start to start.

True to his reputation, Leahy looked like a dramatically different pitcher on Sunday night in Detroit. Leahy cooled the red-hot Tigers over five innings, allowing just five hits and two runs.

Mixing six pitches to keep the Tigers off balance, Leahy worked out of a jam in the second when he got Javier Baez to line up to strand two runners. The only damage against Leahy came in the third inning when Kerry Carpenter drilled a two-run homer to straight-away center.

Leahy struck out four, while walking three. He got just seven swings and misses, but five came off a changeup that he throws similarly to a split-fingered fastball. He threw a career-most 97 pitches and recorded the first win of his MLB career as a starter.

Shoutout to Cardinals.TV analyst Brad Thompson

While some were worried about how Peacock would approach their coverage of Sunday Night Baseball, the network’s broadcast team of Jason Benetti, Andy Dirks, Adam Ottavino and Brad Thompson shined throughout the game.

Thompson, a former reliever for the Cardinals who was a member of the 2006 squad that beat the Tigers in the World Series, showed off his stellar broadcasting chops with some strong analysis. Whether it was his excellent breakdowns of key moments in the game or with his self-deprecating humor, Thompson starred on the national stage.

“It’s the little things (in Sunday’s ball game),” Thompson said in the Peacock postgame show while breaking down the action. “The Cardinals hope that the power is going to come. Jordan Walker has big-time power, but they’re going to have to manufacture (runs), play small ball, get guys over and take that extra base and we saw that in the ball game today.”

The only faux pas came midway through the game when the headsets for Benetti, Dirks and Thompson all went out simultaneously.

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