TORONTO, ON — What started out as a promising night for the Cardinals ended the way a lot of games have ended this season.
The first four Cardinals batters singled to open the game, leading to two runs, but they could only add one run the rest of the night – on Thomas Saggese’s first career homer – and lost to the Blue Jays in 11 innings in Toronto.
The Cardinals had just two hits in 19 at-bats with a runner in scoring position and left 12 runners on base.
Combined with wins by the Mets and Braves, the Cardinals fell to seven games out of the race for the third wild-card position and now have just 15 games left to play in the regular season.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Nine of the runners the Cardinals left on base were stranded on either second or third … Saggese’s home run came with one out in the eighth inning and was hit off former Cardinal Genesis Cabrera … The Cardinals failed to score in the 10th with two groundouts and a strikeout, and also failed to score in the 11th on a fly out, ground out and strikeout.
On the mound: The first three runs for the Blue Jays all scored in the fourth inning off starter Erick Fedde. The inning began with a leadoff walk, followed by a single, double and sacrifice fly … The no-decision left Fedde with a 1-5 record and two no-decisions in his first eight starts for the Cardinals … John King worked a scoreless sixth before Matthew Liberatore shut out the Blue Jays for three innings, walking one and allowing one hit … Ryan Fernandez worked a scoreless 10th but the Blue Jays loaded the bases in the 11th before getting the game-winning hit from Alejandro Kirk … That was the first run allowed by the Cardinals bullpen in their last 17 innings.
Key stat: The Cardinals have now lost the first game in nine of their last 10 series, dating back to Aug. 12.
Worth noting: Manager Oli Marmol said the team will go with a six-man rotation for the next week, with Lance Lynn and Andre Pallante remaining in the rotation. Steven Matz will be available to work out of the bullpen … The Class A Palm Beach Cardinals will begin the finals of the Florida State League playoffs on Sunday.
Looking ahead: Kyle Gibson will get the start on Saturday in the second game of the series.
