CLEVELAND — In the fifth inning Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field, all the conversation swirling around the Cardinals about whether they should make a move at the trade deadline and could make a move away from .500 in the standings paused because of a welt forming on their third baseman’s throwing arm.
Drilled near his right elbow in the fifth inning, Nolan Arenado had to leave the game and was initially diagnosed with a bruised forearm. A Cardinals official said the team is currently classifying him as day to day.
Arenado’s injury added an absence to a game quickly lost.
Cleveland socked three homers in the third inning and four homers total against lefty Kwang Hyun Kim to pull away from the Cardinals for a 7-2 victory and a split of the series. So close to leaving a week spent in Ohio with some exit velocity, the Cardinals instead were drawn back into the orbit of .500, at 51-51.
Franmil Reyes hit Cleveland’s first homer of the game and third homer of the third inning for his 11th career multi-homer game. Terry Francona’s cleanup hitter launched a solo homer to leadoff the second inning – and the ball caromed off a bridge connecting the ballpark to a nearby parking garage. The ball, which traveled an estimated 446 feet in the air, was tracked down on a street adjacent to the ballpark. In the third inning, Reyes hit a ball 421 feet to center field for the third homer in four batters off Kim.
The Cardinals’ lefty has been an essential part of the team’s traction in July with his steady run of reliable starts. He allowed a total of three homers in the shortened 2020 season.
Cleveland had that many in the third inning along.
Two runs scored by rookie Dylan Carlson, the second on his 11th homer of the season, gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead ahead of Reyes’ first homer entering the bottom of the third. Arenado made a sublime barehanded play to throw out the leadoff hitter, Austin Hedges. Then the inning unspooled. Kim (6-6) hit a batter to bring leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez back up. Cleveland thundered away in its second look at Kim.
Hernandez homered to center.
No. 3 hitter Jose Ramirez homered to left-center.
Cleanup hitter Reyes followed with a homer to right-center.
Before Kim could get a ninth out in his start, Cleveland had tagged him with five runs, obliterated the Cardinals’ thin lead and powered their way toward a route.
Four of the five hits Kim allowed were homers, and the only hit that wasn’t was the single that chased him from the game.
The Cardinals last, best chance to rally in the game came at the cost of Arenado finishing the game. Paul Goldschmidt led off the fifth inning against Cleveland starter Zach Plesac with a single. Plesac went up and in on Arenado, as Cleveland routinely did in the series, and while the Cardinals third baseman got his hands out of the way, the pitch struck him on his back arm, right near the elbow. Greeted at the plate by manager Mike Shildt and trainer Adam Olsen, Arenado flexed his fingers and his grip, and shook his arm a few times.
He was in clear discomfort even as he removed the pads he wears at the plate so that he could remain in the game to run the bases.
The rally stalled from there.
Plesac got the next three Cardinals’ batters to fly out, stranding Goldschmidt and Arenado, and bringing the next test for the Gold Glove third baseman.
He took the field to warmup and test his arm, but before getting to his position he started talking with the trainer and then walked off the field with him. Edmundo Sosa replaced Arenado at third base. The Cardinals have an off day Thursday and do not play again until Friday night, allowing time for evaluation of Arenado’s bruise and treatment.
They split series in Cleveland and the one win Cincinnati on this road trip leaves the Cardinals where they’ve been most of this season – middling – as the trade deadline arrives before their next competitive pitch. The leaders of the front office joined the team in Cleveland this week, and they continue to shop for a pitcher. Max Scherzer is biggest name available, and as a result the righthander is drawing attention for many teams interested in starters. One he’s moved – if he’s moved – that could unlock other starters traded, similar to the free-agent market waiting on the first domino to fall before interested teams rush to acquire other starters.
The front office declined an interview request Wednesday.
