The wins the Cardinals wanted to get to remain relevant in the wild-card race came only because Giovanny Gallegos has regained the form they’ll need from him in the ninth to make it possible.
The Cardinals’ new closer, less than a week removed from tumbling into trouble in Milwaukee, completed his second save in as many games and with just as little margin for error against the defending World Series champions. Less than 17 hours after he held fast to a one-run lead for Wednesday night’s win, Gallegos pitched a flawless ninth to cement a 2-1 victory Thursday afternoon against LA at Busch Stadium.
Gallegos struck out Chris Taylor to end the game and get a series split, rallying for wins in the final two games of the visit.
The save was Gallegos’ sixth of the season.
Both this week have come with a one-run lead when he entered the game — and when he exited it with a handshake from his teammates.
The Cardinals took the lead in the first inning with a pair of doubles from Dylan Carlson and backup catcher Andrew Knizner. After the Dodgers answered with a run in the third inning, the game remained tied through all the pitching machinations until the fifth. Tyler O’Neill socked his second homer in as many games — and for the second consecutive day it was the difference.
O’Neill’s homer off Phil Bickford snapped the 1-1 tie and gave the Cardinals’ bullpen a lead to hold, not one to wait on.
The game’s winner, Alex Reyes, pitched two scoreless innings to bridge the game from starter to the look of the late innings without him. T.J. McFarland ushered the game through the seventh and into the eighth for Luis Garcia. The righthander who is making a move on a larger role and perhaps some save opportunities for the Cardinals needed five pitches, all of them strikes, to retire the two batters he was assigned.
That got the game to Gallegos for the ninth.
In his first audition to remain in the rotation, Jake Woodford got as far as the Cardinals’ offense would let him and shy of how well he pitched deserved.
The righthander got help from a sliding catch in right field to get out of the first inning and he allowed a RBI single in the third inning, but otherwise he was the efficient, steady starter the Cardinals are looking for in that fifth spot of the rotation. Woodford struck out two batters in the second, and he eased out of trouble in the third inning by playing against the eagerness of a hitter. With the bases loaded, Cody Bellinger jumped on the first pitch from Woodford and popped up to end the inning and miss the Dodgers’ best chance against the young righty.
Woodford earned the chance to make the start with his work in relief this past weekend at Milwaukee. In relief of Kwang Hyun Kim, Woodford got 16 outs from 16 batters.
His 5 1/3 scoreless innings vs. the first-place Brewers made the Cardinals decision obvious, let alone that they would have a discussion about starting him.
He pitched a perfect fourth inning and appeared poised to head into the fifth inning with the No. 9 spot in the order leading off. That would mean a third look at Woodford for leadoff hitter and former MVP Mookie Betts, but it also could mean one fewer inning for the bullpen. Woodford had 12 outs on 66 pitches, and he had been pressing past that with his starts for Class AAA Memphis.
The score he helped protect worked against him.
Paul DeJong worked a one-out walk and then stole second to put the potential tiebreaking run at second base for the pitcher’s spot in the order. The Cardinals, rather than have Woodford continue in the game, went to a pinch-hitter for the swing at taking the lead. That pinch-hitter, Matt Carpenter, struck out to plunge his slide to zero-for-27. The Cardinals’ veteran has gone more than a month since his last hit.
Albert Pujols made his final regular-season appearance of the year as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning for the Dodgers. Pujols, who homered in his first at-bat back at Busch, took a walk — perhaps one handed him strategically to avoid such dramatics. McFarland ended that inning with a groundout from Mookie Betts. As Pujols walked to the Dodgers dugout he was greeted there like he was for every one of his first at-bats of each game.
An ovation followed him as he ducked into the dugout and out of sight.
