Cards 9th Inning Collapse Leads to Boston Win in 10

Well well well, if it isn’t my old nemesis: Extra Innings

For the third time this season, the St. Louis Cardinals (4-4) came up on the wrong side of an extra inning affair, this time losing 5-4 to Boston in 10 innings Sunday afternoon at Fenway.

Boston’s Wilyer Abreu hit a rocket off of Ryan Fernandez that bounced off the top of the Green Monster to score Alex Bregman to win the game for the Sox. Aroldis Chapman was credited with the win.

This afternoon’s game was the first of a Sunday doubleheader. St. Louis and Boston are gonna do it again in about 90 minutes over on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Miles Mikolas takes the mound against Hunter Dobbins, who will be making his MLB debut tonight. Maybe have that on in the background while you’re watching The White Lotus finale.

Ryan Helsely blew the save opportunity in the ninth inning. Helsley came in with a 4-2 lead but command issues doomed the Cards closer. Helsely walked four and of his 37 pitches, 21 missed the strike zone. Helsely walked the first two batters he faced and 10 of his first 11 pitches were balls. He would settle and for a second it looked like the Cards would be able to escape with a narrow 4-3 win; leading 4-3 with the bases loaded, Helsley had Rafeal Devers down to an 0-2 count with two outs, but threw four straight balls to walk in the tying run.

The biggest loss, however, didn’t come on the boxscore, but at the catcher position. Iván Herrera left the game in the third inning and needed help getting to the dugout. He wasn’t able to put any weight on his left foot.

Pedro Pagés came on in relief of Herrera and had a really good day at the plate. Pagés went 2-3 with a pair of doubles and drove in three RBI, including what looked like the game-winning hit in the eighth.