ST. LOUIS — Jon Lester’s second start as a Cardinal was OK although he wound up allowing five runs in 5 1/3 innings Sunday at Busch Stadium. The 37-year-old lefthander also doubled on one hop over the left-center-field wall to lead off the third inning.
The Cardinals, in fact, had 10 base runners in the first five innings. Only one of them scored and that was Dylan Carlson, who led off the Cardinals’ first with a home run.
But, just when that deficiency appeared as if it would bite them, the Cardinals rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to tie the game with Kansas City and take a shot at completing one of the sweeps they surely will need to climb back into playoff contention.
And then Paul Goldschmidt, who had driven in runs in both the seventh and eighth to fuel the Cardinals’ comeback, committed his first error of the season. His throwing miscue on a sacrifice attempt in the ninth inning led to the winning run for the Royals, who managed a 6-5 win over the Cardinals following a 2 hour 10 minute rain delay after Goldschmidt’s error.
The Cardinals again fell on the dirt side of .500 at 55-56 and, while they took their second series out of three on the home stand, they lost five of nine games on the stand overall against three teams—Minnesota, Atlanta and Kansas City—all of whom arrived with losing records. Minnesota and Kansas City also left town with losing records.
Alex Reyes, the fourth Cardinals pitcher, allowed a leadoff single to Hanser Alberto in the ninth and then Jarrod Dyson bunted to the right of the mound, where Goldschmidt made the pickup and daringly threw to second but fired it past a stretching shortstop Paul DeJong, with the runners winding up at second and third with nobody out before it began raining hard.
After the lengthy delay, Reyes returned to the mound and induced Whit Merrifield to ground to DeJong, who threw high to catcher Andrew Knizner, who nonetheless made the tag.
Nicky Lopez quickly fell behind at 0-2 but, with Merrifield running, Lopez lined a single to right to score Dyson. Reyes fanned pinch hitter Andrew Benintendi as Lopez stole second and escaped the inning with no more damage as he also struck out Carlos Santana.
But lefthander Richard Lovelady, the seventh Kansas City pitcher, set down the Cardinals in order in the home ninth, striking out two.
Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado stroked two-out, run-scoring singles to cap the eighth-inning surge which began with an infield single by Harrison Bader. Knizner walked and pinch hitter Matt Carpenter was hit by a pitch from former failed Cardinals reliever Greg Holland to load the bases with one out before Carlson delivered a sacrifice fly and Goldschmidt and Arenado both singled off Royals closer Scott Barlow.
Lester, who retired none of the first seven men he faced in his Cardinals debut on Tuesday, set down six of the first seven he opposed on Sunday over two scoreless innings. He got an early lead when Carlson ripped a Kris Bubic changeup for a leadoff homer in the Cardinals’ first. It was his 12th homer of the season.
Lester tried to help himself in the third with his first two-base hits of the season. After Carlson had bounced out and Goldschmidt had flied to medium right, Lester holding at second, the veteran lefthander made it to third on Arenado’s sharp single to left. But, his trip around the bases on a steamy day was wasted when Tyler O’Neill grounded into a forceout.
His time on the bases might have worn on Lester as the Royals scored two runs in the fourth to take their first lead in the series. With one out, Santana and Hunter Dozier both singled to right center, with Santana going to third. Edward Olivares was nicked by a pitch to fill the bases and Michael A. Taylor lined a single inches from the diving attempt of second baseman Tommy Edman.
Santana came in to score and so did Dozier after Alberto had beaten Edman’s throw to first on a potential, inning-ending double play that turned into a forceout.
Bubic inserted himself into peril in the Cardinals’ fourth when he loaded the bases on walks to Edman and Harrison and a hit batsman (DeJong).
Knizner fouled off six consecutive pitches at 2-2, worked the count full and then tapped to Bubic, who started a home-to-first double play. Lester then popped up.
The Royals upped their lead to 3-1 in the fifth with a dose of small ball.
Whit Merrifield walked and Nicky Lopez, sacrificing, bunted to Lester, who had no interest in throwing to second and underhanded to first for the out. Merrifield then stole third ahead of a strong Knizner throw and scored on Salvador Perez’s liner to left. Tyler O’Neill made a good, accurate throw home but Knizner couldn’t handle a high hop to apply the tag.
The Cardinals stranded two more runners in the fifth when reliever Domingo Tapia, relieving Bubic after the latter had tossed 92 pitches, retired Edman on a fly to left with runners at second and third.
Lester was gone after 92 pitches, his 92nd being Taylor’s second single of the game with one out in the sixth. Dozier, who had doubled, stopped at third as O’Neill fielded the ball but the outfielder’s throw home got past Knizner and Dozier re-started his engine and scored the Royals’ fourth run as Knizner didn’t throw to Lester, who was covering the plate. Taylor went to second on the play and scored on pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn’s single off reliever Justin Miller.
The 1.84 earned run average before the game for Lester against the Royals was the lowest against Kansas City by any big-league pitcher with 75 innings or more although he hadn’t faced them in seven years.
The Cardinals scored once off Parkway South product Jake Bentz, a lefthander, in the seventh, when pinch hitter Jose Rondon singled, moved up on a wild pitch and infield groundout and scored on Goldschmidt’s one-out single.
But Brentz froze Arenado with consecutive fastballs at 98 and 100 mph, the second one for strike three, which a frustrated Arenado disputed briefly.
O’Neill walked but Edman flied to right as the Cardinals stranded their eighth and ninth runners of the day. Edman, hitting fifth on Sunday, left three of those. Edman made the final out in three innings, all after O’Neill was walked ahead of him.
