The wild pitch uncorked by Cleveland Guardians reliever Andrew Walters kept spinning and moving even after it hit the dirt, kicked past catcher Austin Hedges and caromed to the wall behind home plate. The ball hit the back wall and ricocheted all the way over near the home dugout.
Walters’ pitch was ball four to Cardinals rookie shortstop Masyn Winn, but with runners on first base and second base and the score tied, that ball skipping so far away from home plate served as an invitation.
The lead runner, Lars Nootbaar, alertly rounded third base and took off for home plate. Nootbaar slid in safely without a throw, and his run stood as the winning run in a 2-1 Cardinals victory over the Guardians in front of an announced 39,100 Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals (79-77) finished their home slate with a series win. They’ll finish the regular season on the road with games against the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants.
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Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 47th save of the season and earned his 26th save in his 26th chance at Busch Stadium this season. That mark is now the most in a single season in the ballpark’s history. Helsley now has 27 home saves this season, with one coming when the Cardinals were the home team in a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
Helsley is now just one save shy of Trevor Rosenthal’s single-season club record.
Helsley capped a stellar pitching performance by the Cardinals that started with Andre Pallante (8-8) not allowing a hit through the first five innings. Pallante held the Guardians to one run on one hit and two walks through seven innings. He struck out four.
Reliever Andrew Kittredge pitched a scoreless eighth inning for his 36th hold of the season — a single-season team record. He has now made 71 appearances this season, the most by a Cardinals reliever in his first season with the club since Andrew Miller (73) in 2019.
Pallante pushes Guardians around early
Pallante faced the minimum (nine batters) through the first three innings. He didn’t allow a hit, and he walked one batter. However, after Daniel Scheemann walked in the first inning, Pallante picked him off of first base.
Just one ball reached the outfield in the first three innings, an inning-ending fly ball to right field by Guardians star slugger Jose Ramirez in the first inning.
Pallante retired the side in order in the second inning with two infield grounders followed by a strikeout. The third inning followed that same formula. Pallante struck out Hedges to end the third inning despite a pitch timer violation called against Pallante that made the count 3-1.
Williams walks away from trouble in 3rd
Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams put himself in a predicament in the third inning when he walked the first two batters of the frame, Nootbaar and Matt Carpenter.
However, the Cardinals were unable to make Williams pay for those free passes. Pedro Pages’ flare got caught in shallow right field for the first out. Masyn Winn hit a soft grounder in front of the pitcher’s mound, and he got throw out for the second out. The runners moved to second and third on Winn’s roller.
Alec Burleson slapped the first pitch of his second at-bat against Williams to Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor for the final out of the inning. The Cardinals stranded both runners in scoring position.
Pallante grounds Guardians offense … until 6th
Of the first 13 outs recorded by Pallante, seven came via ground outs, three came on strikeouts and one runner picked off on the bases. Pallante maneuvered through the first five innings on 59 pitches (37 strikes).
Pallante didn’t allow a hit until Myles Straw singled on a line drive to right-center field in the first at-bat of the sixth inning.
At the time, Pallante and Williams were locked in a pitcher’s duel. The score remained 0-0 heading into the sixth. While Pallante hadn’t allowed a hit, the Cardinals offense produced just two hits during that same span.
The Guardians almost immediately turned Straw’s single into a scoring opportunity. Straw stole second base to put himself in scoring position.
Then, following a walk by Brayan Rocchio, Straw stole third base to put runners on the corners. Hudges’ sacrifice bunt scored Straw and moved Rocchio into scoring position with just one out.
Pallante retired the next two batters and stranded the runner on second base to end the inning. The Guardians grabbed a 1-0 lead with just one hit through six innings.
Cardinals drop run in bucket in 6th
Similar to how the Guardians broke through against Pallante, a leadoff line-drive single started the bottom of the sixth for the Cardinals.
Winn lined a 2-2 pitch to right field for the Cardinals’ third hit of the game to start the frame. However, he remained stranded on first base with two outs with Nolan Arenado at the plate. With a 3-2 count, Winn was running on the pitch.
Arenado hit a fly ball to right field that caused Guardians second baseman Scheeman and the right fielder Jhonkensy Noel, who’d taken several circuitous routes in the outfield to fly balls earlier in the game, converged on the ball in shallow right field. With Scheeman backpedaling and Noel pulling up, they allowed the ball to drop on the grass, and Winn raced home for the Cardinals’ first run.