photo: Carlos Martinez via Zoom (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
Wednesday, September 23, 2020 – St. Louis 3 at Kansas City 12
The St. Louis Cardinals (27-26) absorbed a 12-3 pounding at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday in the decisive third game of their series with the Kansas City Royals (23-33). Following a win by Cincinnati, the Cardinals fell into a second-place tie with the Reds, with both squads 3 ½ games behind Chicago. Milwaukee is just one game behind them.
Starter Carlos Martinez (L, 0-3) was not up to the task of keeping the Royals’ offense at bay, yielding eight runs on nine hits and two walks over five-plus frames. The right-hander surrendered two of the four home runs slugged off St. Louis pitching, directly accounting for five tallies.
In what turned out to be Martinez’ last pitch of the game, he grabbed his left side, resulting in Seth Elledge’s quick entry. Martinez was later diagnosed with a left mid-back strain. Elledge was subsequently tagged for a three-run bomb scoring Martinez’ final two runners, with his long ball one of four hits and a base-on-balls permitted.
The seventh featured Kodi Whitley’s return to action after his long layoff due to the coronavirus. The right-hander’s last appearance occurred on July 29th. Whitley allowed a solo shot and fanned one. Jake Woodford retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out two.
The offense was pretty somnambulant, mustering just one run through the initial eight frames before doubling that output in the last inning. Yadier Molina and Harrison Bader were the only Cardinals with more than one of the team’s nine hits. Molina went 2-for-3 including a double, plus a walk and run scored out of the five hole. Batting ninth, Bader singled twice in four at bats, knocking in two.
Thursday’s game: vs. Milwaukee (27-28), 7:15 p.m. CDT, Kwang Hyun Kim (2-0, 1.59) vs. Corbin Burnes (4-0, 1.77) FOX Sports Midwest // KMOX
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