7th heaven: In the big inning, Cardinals soar for 8 runs to upend Angels, 10-5 (2024)

ANAHEIM, Calif.— Before there was the pitch pelting an elbow that put the Cardinals ahead, there was the blast that sparked them and the familiar presence that lifted them.

Given a second chance and left with an impression, Paul Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to break a tie game in the seventh and contribute to what became a seven-run, 14-batter bonanza against the Los Angeles Angels’ combustible bullpen. The Cardinals continued to capitalize later as the Angels went from bad to worse to sloppy in the Cardinals’ 10-5 victory late Monday night at Angel Stadium. But the game hinged around the seventh and an inning unlike any the Cardinals have had this season.

Nolan Arenado opened it with a solo home run, and including that swing, the Cardinals began the seventh with five consecutive hits.

They loaded the bases and loaded them again.

But it took Matt Carpenter to start clearing them.

Boasting a .437 career average with the bases loaded and recently back in the lineup for a team that has hit about .120 with the bases loaded, leadoff hitter Carpenter had the Cardinals’ breakthrough hit. He pulled a two-run single to right field to tie the game 4-4 and bring the Cardinals back from what had been a four-run deficit for most of the game. Carpenter’s single was followed by a walk to load the bases again and give Goldschmidt that second chance. He bounced into a double play with the bases loaded an inning earlier. This time, he didn’t have to swing to change the game.

Angels reliever Luis Garcia, once a Cardinal, entered the game to face Goldschmidt and with his first pitch plunked his former teammate.

Three more runs followed, including two on Ivan Herrera’s two-out, two-run single, and by the end of the inning, the Cardinals had erased the Angels’ lead and doubled their runs. Thirteen batters into the inning and every Cardinal who started the game and remained in the game at that point had scored a run. Overpowered by Angels starter Jose Soriano in the first half of the game, the Cardinals needed one inning uprising for their second come-from-behind victory in as many days.

The bullpen held it from there.

While waiting for the rally and then responding to it, Cardinals relievers Kyle Leahy and John King returned 13 consecutive batters. In relief of starter Matthew Liberatore, Leahy struck out three and retired all eight batters he faced, holding the Angels at four runs and buying time for the Cardinals lineup to stir.

Leahy earned his first career big-league win for his 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

The Angels committed two errors in the ninth to allow the Cardinals to widen their lead with a season-high 10 runs.

Nolan Gorman, Herrera and Brendan Donovan all reached base safely at least two times in the final four innings of the game. The only spot in the order that did not score a run was the No. 9 spot.

Seeking clarity for Liberatore

As the Cardinals brace themselves for several more weeks without lefty Steven Matz in the rotation, they aimed Monday to give Liberatore some clarity on his role.

Liberatore subbed for Matz twice, and each time, he had a hard pitch count due to his weeks spent as a reliever to open the season. The Cardinals praised him in a bullpen role, needed him in a starter’s role and now want to give him some definition for where he fits from here forward. Manager Oliver Marmol said hours before first pitch that he’d like to “declare” how Liberatore will be used in the coming week.

With an off day Thursday, the Cardinals can continue to maneuver around a four-man rotation, but the preference would be to give the other starters an extra day, too.

The performance did not provide clarity.

Two base runners reached in the first inning and prompted a mound visit before Liberatore was able to get the second out. A snazzy double play turned by Arenado off a line out got the lefty out of that inning. All four runs against Liberatore came in the third inning— one that was complicated by a bunt single and some speed for the Angels. But after two runs had scored, Liberatore added grease with a walk and then allowed Kevin Pillar’s two-run homer. The Angels sending seven batters to the plate in the third inning bloated the deficit and Liberatore’s pitch count.

It took him 56 pitches to get nine outs.

With a left-handed batter leading off the fourth, Liberatore got that assignment, got that out and then got out of the game. He finished with 10 outs on 60 pitches in his second start as a fill-in for Matz. He also allowed a total of seven base runners, mixing in two walks with five hits.

Soriano sizzles through 5

For as long as he was in the game, Angels starter Soriano blitzed through the Cardinals lineup with some of the best pure stuff they’ve faced, period. Let alone how 100 mph off the fingertips with a knuckle curve that dove into the strike zone at a velocity approaching 90 mph looked for a lineup struggling like the Cardinals have for more than a month.

Through four innings, Soriano had thrown four fastballs at 100 mph or swifter.

Goldschmidt saw two of them. He fouled off a 100.3 mph fastball before striking out on an 86 mph curveball. Herrera struck out in both of his at-bats against Soriano— once on a 100.7 mph and then in the fifth on an 87 mph knuckle curve. Soriano tossed in a splitter for kicks at several points, too. Through five innings, the right-hander had six strikeouts, but the pitch count was climbing and clock ticking.

As good as he was, the bullpen was about to be far worse.

Vexed again (briefly) with bases loaded

With a double and two walks, the Cardinals were able to chase starter Soriano from the game and set up the middle of their lineup with another bases-loaded opportunity.

It has been one of the spots where the Cardinals are at their worst.

Twice in recent games, the Cardinals have loaded the bases with no outs and ample chance to change the game, and in each spot, they failed to produce a run, losing both of the games, including one in extra innings. There are two teams in the majors with a slugging percentage lower than .200 with the bases loaded: the White Sox (.105) and the Cardinals (.188). The only team in the majors less productive with nowhere else to put someone is the White Sox, and the Cardinals are dipping closer with a .125/.175/.188 slash line.

In the sixth, one-out walks from Carpenter and Lars Nootbaar followed Masyn Winn’s leadoff double. Down by four, the Cardinals had the middle of the order up and sidewinder right-hander Adam Cimber with his 70 mph slider coming in.

A few pitches later, the inning was over.

Goldschmidt skipped into an inning-ending double play, allowing Cimber to keep Soriano’s line clean of runs. At that point, Goldschmidt led the Cardinals with six at-bats this season with the bases loaded, and he had yet to deliver a hit.

He has the bruise to prove that he provided an RBI in that same spot later.