After suffering their second consecutive walk-off loss, the St. Louis Cardinals will turn to Opening Day starter Matthew Liberatore when they face the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif.
St. Louis, on the heels of blowing a 7-0 lead in a 10-inning, 8-7 defeat at Arizona on Sunday, saw the Angels rally to win the series opener 3-2 on Monday.
The Cardinals appeared to be in good shape heading into the bottom of the ninth with a 2-1 lead, especially after All-Star closer Riley O’Brien struck out Mike Trout to open the frame. The Angels were 0-48 this season when trailing after eight innings.
But Nolan Schanuel followed with a single and Jorge Soler was hit by a pitch. Vaughn Grissom then lined a double off the top of the right-field fence, missing a home run by inches, to drive in pinch runner Oswald Peraza with the tying run.
After Josh Lowe was intentionally walked to load the bases, O’Brien plunked Jo Adell with a 3-0 sinker to drive in the winning run.
It marked the Angels’ first walk-off win via a hit-by-pitch since Hank Conger was hit on April 11, 2014.
“That’s one of those where you don’t feel it getting hit right there,” said Adell, who snapped an 0-for-24 slump with a solo homer earlier. “Good stuff.”
O’Brien said: “Just didn’t have a good feel for the ball today.”
Despite the loss, St. Louis remained in a tie with Miami and Pittsburgh for the final wild-card spot in the National League.
Liberatore (5-6, 5.00 ERA), who has won two of his last three starts during a roller-coaster season, comes in off his finest outing of 2026. The left-hander allowed four hits over six shutout innings in a 4-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on July 11, walking one and striking out six.
Liberatore has allowed just four earned runs over 16 innings in his last three starts. A big focus has been curtailing big innings.
“That was something that was a theme over a couple starts,” Liberatore said. “I think over the last few starts, I’ve done a much better job of that. Not to say it’s never going to happen again, but I think some of the discussions that we had and adjustments that were made helped me navigate through those moments.”
Liberatore is 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA in two career starts against the Angels.
Rookie right-hander Walbert Urena (5-7, 2.88 ERA) will try to pitch Los Angeles to a series win.
Urena, who has never faced the Cardinals, last started in a 13-1 win on July 8 at Texas and had a lukewarm performance. He allowed one hit over four shutout innings but walked a career-high five batters. He didn’t get a chance to go back out for the fifth inning to earn the win even though the Angels had a 7-0 lead because he already had thrown 90 pitches, just 52 for strikes.
“It wasn’t the best, man,” Urena said afterward. “My command wasn’t the best today. Walks. Behind in counts always. But I got lucky.”
–Field Level Media
