ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ columnists Ben Frederickson and Jeff Gordon congratulate Ryan Helsley on his domination this season before debating what his future should look like.
SAN FRANCISCO — Two of the Cardinals who had disappointing seasons did enough early in Friday night’s game to give the Cardinal who had the most impressive season a chance to close in on history.
With a three-run lead and three outs between him and history, Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley pitched a scoreless ninth inning to secure his 49th save in a 6-3 victory against San Francisco at the Giants’ Oracle Park. He punctuated the record like he’s spent most of the season – spinning a breaking ball past a hitter for a game-ending strikeout.
Helsley is the first in Cardinals history with more than 48 saves.
He converted 49 of 53 save opportunities.
The save also secured an 82nd victory for the Cardinals to assure a winning record, the club’s 23rd winning season since 2000 and 84th in franchise history. Helsley breaks the record set in 2015 by Trevor Rosenthal.
Miles Mikolas finished the year with an ERA higher than 5.00, but he steadied himself enough through the final three innings of his season to buy the time for the Cardinals to rally and then hold the Giants immediately after they did. Lars Nootbaar provided the bulk of the offense with a home run and a triple. Nootbaar’s two-run triple in the fourth inning set the gap that Helsley could try to cement, and his fellow relievers John King, Andrew Kittredge, and Matthew Liberatore ushered the opportunity into Helsley’s hand.
He struck out two around a single to take sole possession of the record.
Nootbaar had his second pair of extra-base hits in as many days and hit his second home run in the past two games. The Cardinals’ outfielder drilled a solo homer to dead-center field at Oracle Park to yank the Cardinals back into the game, and he pulled them further ahead with a two-run triple. The three RBIs gave him five over the past two days and his 11th and 12th homers as the season hits its final weekend.
Nolan Arenado added three hits, including a double.
He and Ivan Herrera reached base thrice as the Cardinals rapped 13 hits.
Winn delivers on lucky No. 13
The at-bat in the top of the fourth inning began routinely enough.
Jordan Walker opened the inning with an infield single that slipped under the glove of third baseman Matt Chapman. Michael Siani appeared to flirt with bunting Walker into scoring position before hitting a groundball that resulted in a forceout at second, not a runner at second.
Up came Winn.
One of the league leaders in hits with two strikes, Winn got his 78th of the season with a leadoff single to start the game. He scored for the Cardinals’ early 1-0 lead. When the leadoff spot came back around in the top of the fourth, the Cardinals trailed 3-2. Giants starter Landen Roupp began Winn’s at-bat with a sinker out of the zone.
And the duel was on.
Before going back to the sinker, Roupp spun two off-speed pitches toward Winn. The curve landed for a strike, and the changeup missed. Another sinker, and the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter was ahead in the count, 3-1. That’s when the at-bat really got good. Winn swung through a curveball to get the count to two strikes. That’s his jam.
He then fouled off seven consecutive pitches.
He fouled off consecutive curveballs.
He fouled off a sinker.
Another curveball? Foul.
Back-to-back sinkers? Foul. Foul.
How about a changeup?
Fouled off, too.
On the 13th pitch of the at-bat, Roupp went back to the sinker – and Winn drilled it for a game-tying double. The sixth sinker of the at-bat split the gap for Winn’s 79th two-strike hit of the season, and the length of the at-bat tenderized Roupp for all that followed.
Two batters later, Alec Burleson threaded a single through the infield to score Winn and break the 3-3 tie. Shortly after Winn’s 13-pitch at-bat, three consecutive teammates reached base, two of them with extra-base hits. Nolan Arenado bounced a rulebook double down the left-field corner to put two runners in scoring position for Nootbaar.
Roupp turned the mound over to lefty Taylor Rogers.
With a home run already in his pocket, Nootbaar laced a triple to the left-center alley that scored both teammates. Roupp got 11 outs in the game and needed 97 pitches to do so. That’s because 23 of them – more than a fourth of the pitches the right-hander threw – were spent trying to retire Winn.
Mikolas' finishing touches on frustrating year
All three of the runs against Mikolas (10-11) in the game in one inning, two of them on one swing.
The Cardinals’ veteran right-hander, who will have a 5.35 ERA stamped on his baseball card for the past season, tumbled into familiar trouble in the second inning. A single was followed by a home run. Mikolas got ahead 0-2 on Giants No. 6 hitter Jerar Encarnacion but could not put away the batter before letting a pitch stray over the middle of the plate. Encarnacion put it out over the wall for the Giants’ first two runs – erasing the Cardinals’ early 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Mikolas allowed a single to center by the No. 9 hitter.
The inning wasn’t done with him.
A double followed, and Mikolas went from 0-2 and nearing the back third of the Giants’ lineup to allowing three runs and misplaying a lead.
What changed is he wouldn’t do it twice.
When the third inning began in a similarly problematic manner, Mikolas found the places around the plate that he could not the previous inning. A walk and a double opened the third for the Giants, and then Mikolas swiftly retired the next three batters to strand two runners and avoid any scoring. He struck out the final two batters the game, and did so with a mix of pitches that played a four-seam fastball against his slider.
With two runners in scoring position, Mikolas started Encarnacion with consecutive sliders before turning to the four-seamer for a foul-tip strikeout. Against Patrick Bailey, a switch-hitter, Mikolas started off with four consecutive four-seam fastballs before then freezing Bailey with a 94.1-mph fastball and called strike 3.