By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks were finally able to wrap up their series from the end of June, the Diamondbacks taking the makeup game 10-6 over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Rain postponed the finale of a three game series back on June 25th. On a mutual off day Arizona was forced to take a one day trip to St. Louis for the makeup game where Tyler Locklear went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI's while starter Brandon Pfaadt pitched six solid innings for his fifth win of the season.
The Cardinals took the lead in the opening inning as Pfaadt allowed two first-inning runs on four straight hits leading off the game, including an RBI double from Jordan Walker to drive in JJ Weterholt and an RBI single by Lars Nootbaar that scored Walker. Pfaadt settled in from there to allow just three more hits and St. Louis didn't score again until the ninth inning.
In the third inning the Diamondbacks took the lead with a three run inning. Tim Tawa's sacrifice fly drove in Max Kepler to cut the Cardinals lead in half before Locklear hit a two run home run for the lead, his first of the season, scoring Adrian Del Castillo for a 3-2 lead. Arizona scored one more in the fifth with Corbin Carroll scoring on a sacrifice fly by Gabriel Moreno, all before a five run eighth inning.
The Diamondbacks sent 11 batters to the plate in the eighth inning and scored the five runs off Matt Svanson and Justin Bruihl. Del Castillo drove in the first run of the inning with an RBI single, bringing home Moreno, before Locklear lined an RBI single up the middle off Svanson with the bases loaded, scoring Del Castillo. Nolan Arenado drove in Tawa with an RBI single for a 7-2 lead and a sacrifice fly from Carroll continued to extend the lead, driving in Ildemaro Vargas.
Moreno's RBI single capped the scoring in the eighth inning, bringing home Locklear. In the top half of the ninth the Diamondbacks added one final run with another RBI single from Arenado, scoring Del Castillo, before the Cardinals scored four two-out runs off Ryan Thompson in the bottom half of the ninth inning, starting with a two RBI single from Bryan Torres that drove in Nathan Church and Weterholt.
A double by Alec Burleson put two runners in scoring position for Nootbaar who came through with another two RBI single to bring home both Torres and Burleson. Nootbaar was stranded at first though as Masyn Winn grounded out to end the game. Michael McGreevy took the loss, falling to 4-8 on the season, allowing four runs on seven hits in 6.1 innings for St. Louis who have now lost 11 of 16.
At the plate, Burleson was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a run scored. Nootbaar was 2-for-5 with three RBI's. Walker was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, while Wetherholt was 2-for-5 with two runs scored.
Next, St. Louis will stay at Busch Stadum to host the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend. Dustin May (5-7, 4.78 ERA, 95K's) is set to start for the Cardinals against Rhett Lowder (3-7, 5.75 ERA, 61K's) for the Reds. First pitch is at 7:15pm, coverage begins at 7:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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