By MATT PIKE
Defeat was snatched out of the jaws of victory as the St. Louis Cardinals dropped the series finale to the Philadelphia Philllies 6-4, being swept to end an 11 game road trip, and losing a series for the first time since July 31st through August 2nd.
St. Louis built a 4-0 lead until the ninth inning when Philadelphia rallied to score all six of their runs. Alec Burleson put the first two runs on the board for the Cardinals with RBI singles. Burleson drove in JJ Wetherholt in the first inning after Wetherholt hit a leadoff single and stole second base. In the fourth inning Burleson brought home Jordan Walker, who also hit a leadoff single in the inning and stole second, before crossing home plate.
Leading off the fifth inning José Fermín extended the lead hitting a solo home run. In the seventh inning, with two runners on and two outs, Wetherholt drove in the final run for St. Louis, scoring Ramón Urías to build the 4-0 lead. In the ninth inning, former Cardinal Edmundo Sosa cut the lead to one run against closer Riley O'Brien, hitting a double with the bases loaded and clearing them, driving in Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, and Justin Crawford to make it 4-3.
Bryan De La Cruz's RBI single scored Sosa, tying the game before Kyle Schwarber's MLB-leading 39th home run of the season provided the walk-off blast, which traveled an estimated 459 feet to center field, and punctuated an incredible comeback. O’Brien fell to 3-5 on the season in relief throwing 0.2 of an inning and giving up six runs on five hits with a walk.
St. Louis starter Kyle Leahy was on his way to another winning day after victories in all three of his previous August starts. Leahy has gone 11 consecutive starts allowing two or fewer runs, the Cardinals however keep Leahy on a limited pitch count as he transitions from reliever to starting pitcher so he was limited to 63 pitches and left after four innings despite pitching a two-hit shutout with four strikeouts to that point. At the plate, Burleson was 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Wetherholt was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base.
Next, St. Louis has an off day Monday before opening a home series against Baltimore on Tuesday. St. Louis has not named a starter to face Chris Bassitt (4-4, 5.08 ERA, 46Ks) for the Orioles. First pitch Tuesday will be at 6:45pm with coverage beginning at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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