By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals earned their first series win of the second half of the Major League Baseball season, and the first series win since just before the All Star Break, beating the New York Yankees 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.
The Cardinals had not won a series since July 10th through the 12th against the Atlanta Braves, right before teams stopped play for All Star festivities in Philadelphia. On the mound, Andre Pallante earned his team leading 12th victory, improving to 12-6, throwing 5.1 innings and giving up one run on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. The Cardinals got all the runs they needed to win in the fifth inning.
With Bryan Torres on second base, reaching on a forceout, and Jimmy Crooks on first after a single, with two outs JJ Wetherholt put St. Louis on the board with a two RBI double, driving in both runners. Iván Herrera followed with a ground rule double, bringing home Wetherholt, to put the Cardinals ahead 3-0. In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees scored their lone run, charged to Pallante but given up by George Soriano.
Pallante walked Ben Rice, and allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch, being replaced by Soriano after walking Luis García Jr. Soriano hit Heliot Ramos with a pitch to load the bases but then struck out Spencer Jones for the second out of the inning. A bases loaded walk to Jazz Chisolm scored Rice to put the Yankees down 3-1. Soriano escaped the jam striking out Ryan McMahon. Riley O'Brien went on to record his 27th save, pitching a clean ninth inning walking one and striking out one.
At the plate, Crooks was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Blaze Jordan and Nathan Church were also 2-for-4 on the night. Wetherholt was 1-for-3 with a double and two walks, driving in two runs. Herrera was 1-for-5 with an RBI.
St. Louis is off on Thursday and returns to Busch Stadium on Friday to host the Colorado Rockies. Kyle Leahy (7-4, 3.44 ERA, 91K's) will start for the Cardinals on Friday against Ryan Feltner (4-5, 5.75 ERA, 57K's) for the Rockies. First pitch is at 7:15pm, coverage begins at 7:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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