By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals rallied back to tie the game in the fifth inning, but Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit a tiebreaking RBI double and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Redbirds 8-7 at Busch Stadium.
Encarnacion-Strand and Dylan Beavers opened the scoring with RBI singles, scoring Gunnar Henderson and Samuel Basallo respectively, before Leody Taveras hit a three-run home run, driving in both and extended the lead to 5-0 in the first inning. Pete Alonso added on in the second inning, following with his team-leading 32nd home run of the year, a two-run homer scoring Carlos Narváez to extend Baltimore's lead to 7-0. In the bottom half, St. Louis got on the board scoring one run on a solo home run by Nolan Gorman.
In the fifth inning, the Cardinals rallied back, with Alec Burson starting the comeback with a two-run single, bringing home Bryan Torres and JJ Wetherholt. Jordan Walker followed with an RBI double, driving in Iván Herrera, before Nathan Church also doubled, scoring two more runs bringing Burleson and Walker across home plate to cut the lead to one run for Baltimore. Church stole third base, and José Fermín tied the game at 7-7 with an RBI groundout to complete the comeback.
In the top of the ninth inning, Encarnacion-Strand's double off Riley O'Brien scored Luis Vázquez, dropping O'Brien to 3-6 on the season. Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy threw five innings, giving up seven runs on 10 hits while striking out three. Orioles reliever Grant Wolfram worked a hitless eighth inning, and Andrew Kittredge picked up his seventh save of the season with a one-hit ninth as Baltimore took the first two games of the three-game set.
At the plate, Torres was 3-for-3 with a run scored, while Herrera was 3-for-4 with a run scored, also walking once. Church was 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, walking once.
St. Louis will look to snap their losing streak in the series finale tomorrow against Baltimore. Trevor Rogers (9-8, 4.14 ERA, 114Ks) starts for the Orioles while the Cardinals have not named a starter. First pitch is at 1:15pm, coverage will begin at 1:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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