After a 3-3 six-game road trip, the Athletics return home tonight to take on the National League Central’s St. Louis Cardinals. Jeffrey Springs will take them mound tonight for the A’s against Andre Pallante for St. Louis.
The Cardinals teed off against Springs starting with the lead-off batter. Four hits and a walk later the Cardinals put a four-spot on the scoreboard in the first. It took Springs 32 pitches to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the second, Darrel Hernaiz singled, and after fouling a pitch off his ankle Jeff McNeil singled also. Nick Kurtz made it three in a row and his came with an RBI. Shea Langeliers drove in both McNeil and Kurtz with a double to the wall. At the end of two, the A’s trailed the Cards 4-3.
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Springs settled down after that first inning and finished five keeping the Cards off the board the rest of the way. His final line was 5.0 innings, seven hits, four earned runs with three walks and five strikeouts. Joel Kuhnel entered in the sixth and promptly gave up a 2-run homer to JJ Wetherholt, giving the Cards a 6-3 lead. Brooks Kriske entered the game and got the final out of the inning. He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and after getting an out in the eighth, left the game with an injury. Scott Barlow entered the game to replace Kriske.
Shea Langeliers opened the eighth inning with a monster homer, the 100th of his career to tighten the score to 6-4.
Mark Leiter Jr. came in to pitch the ninth. He set the Cards down in order giving the A’s a shot in the ninth to tie or take this game. Lawrence Butler led off with a 4-pitch walk. Jonah Heim pinch hit and ground into a double play. McNeil ground out to the pitcher to end the game. Disappointing and a bit surprising that today’s big league call up Henry Bolte didn’t see any action. Let’s see if he makes it into tomorrow’s starting lineup.
