ST. LOUIS — Left-hander Jordan Montgomery had been the most consistent member of the Cardinals’ starting rotation, but the fourth inning became a frame he’d like to forget as the Arizona Diamondbacks scored six runs and turned the slimmest of Cardinals leads into a significant deficit for the home club.
Montgomery allowed six runs on seven hits in that inning as the Diamondbacks swung the game drastically in their favor, and the Cardinals lost their second in a row and fourth in their last six games, 8-7, in front of an announced crowd of 36,028 at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.
Despite a two-homer day by Willson Contreras, his first as a Cardinal and the 12th of his career, as well as a home run by Paul Goldschmidt, the Diamondbacks clinched the series victory with the win, and the Cardinals will try to avoid being swept in the three-game set that wraps up on Wednesday afternoon.
The Cardinals rallied and scored three runs in the ninth and brought the tying run and then potential winning run to the plate in the ninth.
Montgomery, who’d allowed five total runs in his first three starts (18 1/3 innings), allowed seven runs on 10 hits, including one home run, in four innings. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two.
The Cardinals (7-11) went into the outcome-altering fourth inning with a 2-1 lead, but Montgomery gave up the tying run just two batters into the stanza after a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. single and a Christian Walker RBI double.
Evan Longoria’s single to center put runners on the corners, and then a ground ball to first baseman Paul Goldschmdit gave the Cardinals a chance to throw out the lead runner attempting to score. However, a botched rundown left the bases loaded and set the stage for Nick Ahmed’s two-run double on a curveball he hit after it bounced off the dirt in front of home plate.
Gabriel Moreno followed with a three-run homer, and that gave the Diamondbacks a 7-2 advantage.
Cardinals rally late
The Cardinals got within four runs on a Dylan Carlson RBI double off the center field wall in the sixth inning. The Diamondbacks (11-7) responded with a run in the seventh, and Willson Contreras’ first home run as a member of the Cardinals – a 441-foot blast in the seventh inning – made it a four-run game again, 8-4.
Reliever Jordan Hicks, who’s struggled in recent outings, pitched a scoreless ninth inning that included three strikeouts and one hit allowed to keep the margin at four runs.
The Cardinals scored three runs in the ninth after a leadoff walk by Lars Nootbaar, a double by Goldschmidt, an Alec Burleson RBI groundout and a two-run home run by Contreras. The two-run homer made it a one-run game.
Pinch hitter Nolan Arenado hit a fly ball that was caught in center field, but Tyler O’Neill walked to put the tying run on base before Carlson grounded out to end the game.
Unexpected lineup shuffle
A little less than two hours before first pitch, the Cardinals rearranged their lineup and scratched second baseman Brendan Donovan due to what the team called a shin abrasion.
Donovan, who leads the team with 11 runs scored and who’d been riding a six-game hitting streak, had been slated to bat leadoff and start at second base. Instead, the Cardinals inserted Taylor Motter into the lineup at third base and Nolan Gorman, originally slated to start at third, moved over to second base.
The batting order also got reconfigured as right fielder Lars Nootbaar moved from the sixth spot in the order to the leadoff spot. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt also moved from third to second and Alec Burleson moved from second to third.
Arenado had a scheduled day off, his first of the season.
Contreras batted in the cleanup spot with Arenado out of the lineup. It gave the Cardinals alternating left-handed and right-handed hitters through each of the first six spots in the order with the switch-hitting Carlson batting seventh.
In his last three games, Contreras has gone 5 for 12 with three doubles, a home run and three RBIs.
A day off does Goldy good
Goldschmidt, who had a scheduled day off Monday, blasted a no-doubt-about-it home run in the first inning for his second home run of the season. Monday marked Goldschmidt’s first day off of the season.
A six-time All-Star with the Diamondbacks (the team that drafted him and the franchise he played for in the majors from 2011-2018), Goldschmidt now has seven home runs and 20 RBIs in 20 games (19 starts) against his former club.
He mashed a 3-2 pitch from Diamondbacks starting pitcher Drey Jameson 409 feet to left field.
Goldschmidt extended his on-base streak to each of his first 17 games this season, the longest streak to begin a season of his career. He began the day tied with two other players for the second-longest active streak in the majors.
Goldschmidt went 2 for 5 with a double and a home run in the game. He’s batting .328 this season.
