ST. LOUIS — Well, the Cardinals and Paul Goldschmidt finally got that home run they were seeking Friday night after eight dry games. A lot of good it did.
The singles machine that has been the Cardinals lately churned out only three singles to go with a double by Nolan Arenado. That was the extent of the Cardinals’ attack in a 6-2 loss to the light-hitting Diamondbacks before a paid house of 40,753 at Busch Stadium.
Arizona had been so punchless entering the game that it had by far the lowest team batting average in the majors at .178. This renders it almost inexcusable that the Cardinals walked six of them, five in six innings by normal control artist Adam Wainwright.
Four of those walks — three by Wainwright — were tied to four of the runs scored by Arizona.
It took a familiar face for Goldschmidt to break his home-run drought from the start of the season. Goldschmidt had had 71 career at-bats and a .338 career average with three homers against Arizona left-hander Madison Bumgarner, formerly with San Francisco.
Bumgarner quickly got ahead of Goldschmidt at 0-2 in the first inning before the Cardinals’ first baseman fought back to work the count to 3-2.
Goldschmidt fouled off a succession of change-ups, cutters and fastballs before drilling a 3-2 sinker over the left-center-field wall for this first homer in 19 games. This vaulted Goldschmidt briefly over the .300 mark for the season as he extended his hitting streak to eight games, covering 16 hits.
Of equal or more significance was the fact that the home run was the Cardinals’ first in nine games, or since Arenado hit a game-winner in the ninth inning at Miami on April 20.
Wainwright walked three Arizona hitters in the first three innings but ground-ball double plays extricated him from the first two spots. In the third, however, Arizona went ahead 2-1.
Wainwright’s second leadoff walk of the game was coaxed by No. 8 hitter Geraldo Perdomo. Jose Herrera, hitting .059 as the ninth hitter, singled Perdomo to third.
Daulton Varsho bounced a high hopper off the glove of first baseman Goldschmidt and into right field for a double to score Perdomo. Pavin Smith’s groundout scored Herrera and sent Varsho to third with one out.
But Wainwright froze Varsho at third on David Peralta’s tapper to second and Seth Beer’s roller to Goldschmidt. Wainwright, in fact, would set down nine consecutive batters from the third through the fifth, with seven of the outs on the infield and the other two strikeouts.
The Cardinals, however, were doing nothing with Bumgarner after the first. They had only Albert Pujols’ single to center field from innings 2 through 5.
Wainwright walked a third leadoff man in Smith to start the sixth and then passed Seth Beer with one out. Switch-hitting rookie Cooper Hummel made him pay with a run-scoring single to right center.
By the time the inning was over, Wainwright was at 100 pitches and out of the game. He had induced 13 ground-ball outs and allowed just four hits but he was bitten by what rarely gets him — the base on balls — as he pitched almost as if the Diamondbacks still had Goldschmidt.
Bumgarner came out after five innings, having allowed just three hits but having tossed 89 pitches. Luis Frias handled the sixth, pitching around a one-out walk to Tyler O’Neill.
The Cardinals’ sixth walk of the night, by T.J. McFarland, led to two runs in the Arizona seventh. This walk came to Herrera with one out. Varsho poked a single against the shift to an unoccupied area and into left field.
Andre Pallante relieved and allowed both runners to score as pinch hitter Jordan Luplow singled and Peralta hit a sacrifice fly on which Gold Glover Harrison Bader made a diving catch in center field.
Bader scored the Cardinals’ second run in a bizarre play involving a balk in the home seventh. Bader walked with one out and sped to third on Yadier Molina’s single to left center. Paul DeJong ran the count to 3-2 and took what appeared to be ball four, which would have loaded the bases. But the umpires called a balk on Frias, scoring Bader.
Home-plate umpire and crew chief Ron Kulpa, after a consultation with the rest of his crew, called replay headquarters in New York and the determination was reached that the run counted but DeJong had to come back to the plate with his 3-2 count because Bader was not forced home by the walk. The balk took precedence.
DeJong, instead of walking, then flied out but Tommy Edman singled off Noe Ramirez, with Molina stopping at third. Edman stole second but Goldschmidt struck out.
The run the Cardinals scraped up in the seventh was negated in the eighth when the bottom of the Diamondbacks’ order again hurt the Cardinals. No. 6 hitter Ketel Marte doubled and No. 7 batsman Sergio Alcantara singled off right-hander Kodi Whitley.
