ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals looked poised for a third consecutive win, a series-clinching victory in come-from-behind fashion after they’d fallen into an early hole. Momentum seemed to be shifting in their favor in a season primarily characterized by unmet expectations.
Then the Houston Astros knocked around one of the Cardinals most reliable relievers and everything changed.
Right-hander Giovanny Gallegos allowed five runs on four hits, including a pair of home runs, and one walk in the eighth inning as the Cardinals lost, 10-7, to the Astros in the second game of a three-game series in front of an announced crowd of 41,452 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Cardinals (33-46) were leading 7-5 heading into the eighth inning, but Gallegos allowed a single and a walk by the first two batters he faced. Then a sacrifice bunt put both runners in scoring position with the Cardinals protecting a two-run lead.
Astros leadoff hitter Jose Altuve mashed a 1-2 fastball from Gallegos to left field for a three-run homer. That gave the Astros an 8-7 edge. Gallegos remained in the game and got a pop-up for the second out of the inning.
Then Kyle Tucker smoked a double to right-center field that bounced over the wall. Jose Abreu, the seventh batter Gallegos faced, then hit a two-run home run to center field as the Astros took a 10-7 lead.
Gallegos allowed multiple home runs for the third time this season, which tied Genesis Cabrera for the most games with multiple home runs allowed by a reliever this season and also tied the franchise record set by Cot Deal (1954), Steve Peters (1988), Lee Smith (1993), Jeff Brantley (1998) and Jorge Sosa (2006).
Gallegos has now allowed seven home runs in 30 appearances this season. He’d allowed six home runs in 57 appearances in 2022 as well as six in 73 appearances in 2021.
Nolan Arenado (1 for 4), Paul Goldschmidt (3 for5) and Brendan Donovan (2 for 4) belted one home run apiece to give the Cardinals their 17th game this season with three homers or more.
Arenado left the game after the fifth inning due to lower back tightness.
For the first time this season, the Cardinals got home runs from their two cornerstones Arenado and Goldschmidt in the same game. The two have homered in the same game nine times since they became teammates in 2021, but they hadn’t homered in the same game since Aug. 12, 2022. The Cardinals’ record fell to 7-2 when they homered in the same game.
The trio of Arenado (16 home runs), Goldschmidt (14) and Nolan Gorman (15) made the Cardinals the fourth major league team to have three players with at least 14 home runs.
Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas had received five total runs of support in his previous six starts, including zero runs in his previous start, but his teammates scored six runs while he was on the mound against the Astros.
Mikolas allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out four in a no decision.
The Cardinals will try to salvage a series victory with a win against the Astros (43-37) on Thursday night.
Early offense strikes against for Astros
For the second straight game, the Astros jumped out to a first-inning lead and forced the Cardinals to play from behind before they’d even taken their first swing of the night.
Each of the first three Astros batters of the game reached base. Altuve lined a leadoff double into left-center field followed by an Alex Bregman four-pitch walk and a Kyle Tucker RBI double just inside the first base foul line.
Abreu’s sacrifice fly drove in the second run of the inning as Bregman tagged up and scored. Jeremey Pena added a two-out RBI single to right field to give the Astros a 3-0 lead to start the night.
In Tuesday’s series opener, the Astros scored an unearned run in the first inning and led 2-0 before the Cardinals scored their first run.
Arenado and Burleson deliver in the first
After the Astros scored three first-inning runs against Mikolas, the Cardinals responded immediately and took the lead back with a four-run bottom half of the inning with the help of a three-run home run.
Astros starting pitcher Cristian Javier hadn’t allowed more than four runs in any of his starts this season, and he entered the day with a five-game win streak dating back eight starts for the right-hander. He’d won 11 of his previous 12 decisions and had held opposing hitters to a .190 batting average this season.
Donovan and Nootbaar sandwiched singles around a Goldschmidt fly out. Then Arenado, who drove in the go-ahead run in Tuesday night’s win, blasted a 3-2 fastball high and inside into the left-field stands for his 16th home run of the season.
Arenado’s three-run homer tied the score and marked the first time both the Cardinals and Astros scored three runs apiece in the first inning against each other since Aug. 30, 2008.
The Cardinals offense kept the pressure on Javier with a two-out single by Gorman. Burleson, who’d had just five at-bats since June 11 and hadn’t even played since June 17, roped an RBI double into the right field corner. Gorman scored the fourth run of the inning and gave the Cardinals the lead.
A rude introduction for Javier
Javier made his first career start against the Cardinals, and he finished his outing having allowed a season-high six runs on eight hits in four innings. The eight hits tied the most Javier allowed in a game this season.
On top of scoring four runs in the bottom of the first, the Cardinals tacked on a run in the second inning thanks to Goldschmidt’s 443-foot solo home run to center field.
Goldschmidt’s 68th career home run at Busch Stadium (version three) tied him with Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter for the third-most in the ballpark’s history.
The Cardinals added a run in the fourth inning courtesy of a Goldschmidt bases-loaded RBI single.
Astros push back against Mikolas
The Cardinals led 6-3 after four innings, but the Astros scored two runs in the top of the sixth and chased Mikolas from the game before the inning concluded.
Three consecutive batters reached with two outs against Mikolas. Bligh Madris doubled, Jake Meyers walked and Martin Maldonado smacked a two-run double to make the score 6-5. Maldonado was the last batter Mikolas faced.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol brought in Andre Pallante with two outs and the top of the Astros batting order coming up for the fourth time in the game.
Pallante walked Altuve and Bregman, which loaded the bases for left-handed hitting Kyle Tucker.
Tucker, who posted back-to-back 30-home run seasons in 2021 and 2022, struck out swinging on a 3-2 fastball.
Pallante, who has better career numbers facing left-handed hitters than right-handed hitters, stranded the bases loaded and preserved a one-run lead. He recorded his 100th career strikeout when he got Tucker to finish the inning.
