Another game farther back in the National League wild-card race, the St. Louis Cardinals get a chance to avenge a tough series-opening loss with a rematch against the host San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.
The Cardinals rallied from a ninth-inning deficit, took a 10th-inning lead and allowed an 11th-inning walk-off in a stinging 5-4 defeat in San Francisco on Monday.
The loss dropped St. Louis (72-73) five games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks (77-68) in the race for the National League’s final wild-card spot with just 17 games remaining. Every game falls into the “must win” category now.
The Cardinals haven’t helped themselves in the playoff race, having lost 10 of the past 16 games. But manager Oliver Marmol likes the resiliency of a group that has rebounded from four of its past five defeats with a win.
“We continue to do a nice job of just staying focused. And that’s a big part of this,” he told reporters recently. “You can easily get distracted and start to think about what just happened, or start thinking too far ahead of what it’s going to take to come back with. But the guys just continue to stay focused on what’s right in front of them, and (they’ve) done a nice job of coming back often.”
Hoping to neutralize the powerful left-handed bats in the middle of the San Francisco order, Marmol will call upon lefty Quinn Mathews (1-2, 4.38 ERA) to make his sixth big-league start.
The 25-year-old Southern California native pitched well in front of family and friends in a 3-2 loss in Los Angeles to the Dodgers last Thursday. He allowed one run on four hits in five innings and was not part of the decision. The Cardinals have supported him with a total of just 12 runs in his five starts.
He has never faced the Giants.
Left-handed hitters are batting .211 against Mathews, well below the .295 average of right-handed batters.
The Giants (60-85) will challenge those numbers with lefties Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge, who combined for three doubles, a single, a run, two walks and four RBIs in Monday’s win.
Devers’ two doubles in the series opener gave him 36 for the season. Coupled with 35 homers, he became the first Giants player since Jeff Kent in 2002 to have a 35-double/35-homer season. Kent was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in July.
Giants manager Tony Vitello heaped praise upon Devers.
“It’s been like watching Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant,” Vitello said about Devers, who has four doubles and six home runs in his past eight games. “It’s kind of like watching one of those guys that can literally control a game. It’s no secret that if you look at the games we’ve been able to win (in) the last 10 games, he’s the main schtick, the straw that’s stirring the drink.”
Giants right-hander Landen Roupp (8-13, 4.17) is scheduled to get the ball to start the rematch. San Francisco has won his past two starts, during which he held the Diamondbacks and Pittsburgh Pirates to two runs in 10 innings.
He got the win in a 6-1 triumph against Arizona on Aug. 27 and wound up with a no-decision in a 5-3, 10-inning win last Wednesday.
Roupp has faced the Cardinals just once in his career, and it didn’t go well. During his rookie season, Roupp was blasted by the Cardinals, who tagged him for nine hits and six runs in 3 2/3 innings in a 6-3 loss on Sept. 27, 2024.
–Field Level Media
