ST. LOUIS — The injury to Willson Contreras is giving Ivan Herrera an extended chance to play for the Cardinals, and the rookie catcher is making the most of it.
Herrera had one of the key hits in a five-run eighth inning on Saturday night that sent the Cardinals to their second win in a row over the Red Sox at Busch Stadium.
Herrera’s RBI single, the third consecutive single to open the inning, drove in the go-ahead run after the Red Sox had tied the game in the top of the eighth.
Including the game when Herrera replaced Contreras after he broke his arm, Herrera has 13 hits in 30 at-bats, a .433 average, and four RBIs in the eight games.
His hit on Saturday night extended his hitting streak to nine games and helped the Cardinals win for the fifth time in their last six games.
Here is how Saturday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: The Cardinals had six hits in the eighth inning, all singles, giving them a 14-hit game for the second consecutive night. The inning began with singles by Nolan Arenado, Alec Burleson, Herrera and Nolan Gorman before Masyn Winn hit a sacrifice fly. Two-out singles by Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar, plus an error by the Red Sox, led to the final two runs … Gorman’s seventh homer of the season in the second inning produced the first St. Louis run and another Boston error helped give them their second run in the seventh that temporarily gave them a 2-1 lead … All 10 Cardinals who batted recorded at least one hit.
On the mound: Miles Mikolas came out of the game after five innings, throwing only 79 pitches. He only allowed two hits, one of which was a home run by Rafael Devers … John King and Andrew Kittredge each worked a perfect inning in relief, with Kittredge striking out the side … JoJo Romero struggled to get through the eighth, giving up three hits and the tying run.
Key stat: The rally after giving up the tying run in the top of the eighth let the Cardinals improve their record this season to 18-1 when they are leading after seven innings.
Worth noting: The Cardinals got outstanding starts from three of their top pitching prospects in the farm system on Saturday night. At Double A Springfield, Tink Hence allowed four hits and two runs while striking out nine in six innings … Quinn Mathews made his debut at high Class A Peoria, allowing just one run on three hits, walked one and struck out 11 over seven innings … At low Class A Palm Beach, Chen-Win Lin gave up one hit over six shutout innings, walking two and striking out five as he lowered his ERA for the season to 1.63.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will try to complete the series sweep against the Red Sox on Sunday behind Matthew Liberatore. The game time has been moved up tp 12:05 p.m. and the game will be streamed exclusively on Roku TV.