Photo: AP/Tom Gannam
Cesar Izturis’ sac fly scored Aaron Miles, breaking a 2-2 tie and lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondacks at Busch Stadium on Wednesday. The loss shrunk the Los Angeles Dodgers’ magic number to two games in the National League West race.
The Cardinals jumped on St. Louis native Max Scherzer early, scoring two runs in the second inning on a throwing error by Scherzer that allowed Mark Johnson and Josh Phelps to score. The D-Backs tied it up in third on an rbi single by Chris Young and later Stephen Drew scored when Conor Jackson grounded into a double play.
But that 2-run “outburst” in the 3rd was all the offense the Diamondbacks could muster, as they fell once again to .500 at 79-79 for the season.
They tried to make it easy: The Cardinals held Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus and Albert Pujols out of the starting lineup. Ludwick and Pujols appeared as late-inning replacements. That trio has combined for 94 home runs and 308 runs batted in this season.
Scherzer’s homecoming: D-Backs rookie Max Scherzer had about 100 friends and family in attendance as he made his first ever start in Busch Stadium. Scherzer went 5 innings, giving up 7 hits and 4 runs on the night as his record fell to 0-4. In fact, the Diamondbacks are 0-7 in Scherzer’s 7 starts this season, despite the fact that his ERA as a starter is a respectable 3.41.
The race to 200: Mark Reynolds was back in the lineup and went 0 for 3 with a strikeout to bring his season total to 199. With just one more ‘K’, Reynolds will become the first Major Leaguer in history with 200 strikeouts in one season. But he can take solace in the fact that he won’t be the only one. Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard struck out once on Wednesday vs. the Braves, and upped his season total to 196. Reynolds tied the Major League record set last year by Howard. Incidentally, the Diamondbacks’ Adam Dunn broke a 33-year old record by striking out 195 times back in 2004. The record of 189 had been held by Bobby Bonds since 1970.
Here’s what others are saying about the Diamondbacks’ loss to St. Louis…
The 4-game series (and maybe more finally, the D-Backs’ season) concludes tomorrow with a pitching matchup featuring Arizona’s Doug Davis facing St. Louis’ Joel Pineiro. First pitch is at 11:15 AM Arizona time.
