Cardinals Cannot Complete Sweep in Oakland

After winning the first two of a three game set, the Cardinals lost the series finale to the Oakland Athletics by a score of 6-3 Wednesday afternoon in the Oakland Coliseum.

Steven Matz took on the A’s Paul Blackburn who entered the game with a 19.1 inning scoreless streak. While Matz went pitch for pitch with Blackburn through the first two innings, it was the Athletics who struck first with a two-run home run by recently recalled Esteury Ruiz in the bottom of the third innning.

The Cardinals answered in the top of the fourth with back-to-back singles to start the inning followed by Willson Contreras’ fifth double of the season to cut the deficit to 2-1. Later in the inning with runners on second and third Ivan Herrera drove a ball up the middle for a two RBI single giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. The only lead they would have all game.

The fourth inning double extended Contreras’ hitting streak to 11 games and dating back to last season he has reached base in 23 straight games. Over those 11 games Contreras has slashed a hearty .350/.435/.650 giving St. Louis much needed production in the middle of a lineup that has been struggling to score runs.

The Cardinals lead would disappear in the fifth inning as the A’s collected three straight hits off of Steven Mats, the third being a Shea Langeliers ground-rule double that tied the game at 3-3. Later in the same inning, an Abraham Toro RBI ground out and a Darell Hernaiz sac fly would clean the bases and swell Oakland’s lead to 5-3.

This would be Steven Matz final inning of work giving him a final line of five innings pitched five earned runs on seven hits, three walks and four strikeouts.

In the top of the sixth the A’s would tack on the final run with a Tyler Nevin single off of reliever Ryan Fernandez bringing the score to 6-3. This would be the only blemish in the three innings of work Fernandez, Liberatore and Gallegos split to finish the game out of the bullpen.

The Cardinals clutch hitting continues to be a problem as they went only 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position today and hit only .185 in similar situations throughout the whole series in Oakland. If the Cardinals want to see consistent success they’re going to need to cash in on these opportunities.

The pair of catchers would be the offensive standouts for the Cardinals on Wednesday. Contreras went 3-for-4 with two doubles while driving in a run and Ivan Herrera collected 2 RBI’s on one hit over three trips to the plate.

The Cardinals will have a needed day off Thursday as they travel home to play a three game set against division rival Milwaukee Brewers. First pitch of that series will be Friday at 7:15 when Freddy Peralta takes on Kyle Gibson at Busch Stadium.