Cards Top Giants

Let’s start with the facts. I have not been so cheery this season.

My team’s flaws glow on strat night like a neon brothel sign in Utah. We stumble, we fall. The giant cardinal in the sky routinely drops shit bombs from the sky which have hit my dice often this season.

When we hit, we often don’t pitch. When we pitch, we often don’t hit. The fielding has been sucky. The injuries have been sicky. Paul Skenes has been divine, but his 0-2 record heading into this series has been hellish. We entered 13-11. Splits against the Cubs and Brewers will do that to you.

This vile trend changed Tuesday night at our house.

For three games against a good Giants team we pitched, we hit, we fielded. My offense is built on on-base guys and double machines. We were able to double Billy to death. We got every damn roll. We took three of four and breathed life into what had been a still and lifeless season in St. Loo.

Now, let’s understand that the next four series are against the Dodgers, Reds, Phillies and Rockies. So, things can get shitty again fast. But we savor a good series where everything went well.

Here we go.

GAME 1

Cardinals 11

Giants 2

WP: Gausman

LP: Alcantara

The Goings on:  18 hits. Four of them doubles and a three-run homer by Will Contreras to bust the game open. Five times we had three hits in an inning. Winn and Friedl both had four hits. The game was 5-2 cards heading into the eighth, but we added four to put the game away. Cardinal pitchers struck out 15 Giants hitters. The Giants threatened some in the bottom of the eighth, but Shelby miller struck out Milus with the bases loaded to end the threat.

GAME 2

Cardinals 10

Giants 4

WP: Skenes

LP: Hoffman

The goings on:  Paul Skenes has one clean hit on his card 4/5 vs. both lefties and righties. Billy hit it four times (three lefties and a righty). It looked like Skenes would get another loss after the Gimenez’ three-run double gave the Giants took a 4-1 lead into the seven. But it was not to be. But after one out, Billy brought in Jeff Hoffman. The Cardinals reeled off six straight hits and put up six runs in the inning. They would add three more in the eighth. This time the red birds had 13 hits  including four doubles.

GAME 3

Cardinals 5

Giants 2

WP: Nelson

LP: Sale

S: Estevez

The goings on: In the bottom of the first the Giants missed two diamond changes (1-6, but still…). The Cardinals led 4-1 in the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh, Happ walked, stole second and scored on Millas single to make it 4-2. In the eighth, they threatened against Tyler Rodgers. With the bases loaded and one out, it was Rodgers vs. Seager. Seager popped to short. Estevez relieved a tired Rodgers to face Trevor Bauers. This time a pop to second. Crisis averted. In the ninth, they got two men on and had Trea Turner up with the tying run. A strikeout ended the issue and prolonged Billy’s pain.

GAME 4

Giants 2

Cardinals 1 (12)

WP: Bevens

LP: Miller

The goings on: This one was a taut, low-scoring game. The Giants struck in the third with Soto scoring on a Bailey triple. The Cards tied it in the 7^th on a Benson homer. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the eighth with Benson up again, but he lined a bad split chance to second to end the threat. In the 12^th, Dalton Varsho launched a homer to end the proceedings.