By MATT PIKE
In a matchup that saw no scoring until the ninth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3, evening up the four game series at Busch Stadium.
Kyle Leahy and Max Rajcic combined to pitch eight scoreless innings for the Cardinals. Leahy started on the mound and threw 6.1 innings giving up three hits and walking two while striking out three, before giving way to Rajcic who threw 1.2 innings and struckout one and walked one. In the ninth, Matt Svanson took the mound, and after striking out Corbin Carroll, lost control.
Svanson gave up a single Gabriel Moreno, who advanced to second on a wild pitch, and walked Pavin Smith. Ildemaro Vargas pinch ran for Smith, and advanced to third base as former Cardinal Nolan Arenado doubled, scoring Moreno to give Arizona the lead. A single from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove in both Vargas and Arenado to make the lead 3-0, before the Diamondbacks added their final run on a passed ball, after reliever Gordon Graceffo loaded the bases with two outs, walking Tommy Troy and Ketel Marte.
Trailing 4-0, St. Louis started to strike quickly in the bottom half of the inning to fight back, starting the half inning with a leadoff single from Lars Nootbaar. With one out, after Nathan Church struckout, José Fermín singled to move Nootbaar to third, and an RBI double by Alec Burleson scored Nootbaar to cut into the Arizona lead. Blaze Jordan hit a sacrifice fly, driving in Fermín for the second out. Jimmy Crooks RBI single brought hom Burleson to cut the lead to one, but JJ Wetherholt struckout to end the game 4-3.
Svanson fell to 2-2 in relief, giving up four runs, three earned, on three hits with one strikeout and one walk. At the plate, the Cardinals did outhit the Diamondbacks 7-6, with Nootbaar going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a run scored. Jordan Walker was 2-for-4. Burleson was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
St. Louis continues their series with Arizona tomorrow with the series split thus far. Matthew Liberatore (3-4, 5.23 ERA, 67K's) makes the start for the Cardinals, looking to bounce back from his rough start against the Kansas City Royals, taking on Mitch Bratt who will be making his major league debut. First pitch is at 6:45pm, coverage begins at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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