ST LOUIS — Avery good home stand turned into a great one Sunday as the Cardinals rallied from three deficits in the first five innings and outlasted the New York Yankees 12-9 at Busch Stadium to complete not only their first three-game sweep of the Yankees but they also swept the six-game home stand, which began against the Chicago Cubs.
The Cardinals raised their season-high winning streak to seven games as the Yankees lost their fifth successive game and dropped a three-game series for the first time this year.
The only other time in their histories that the Cardinals had won three games in succession from the Yankees in the same year came in the 1942 World Series when the Cardinals won the final four games after losing the first game.
Adam Wainwright needed 111 pitches to navigate four innings but the bullpen, covering the final 15 outs, enabled the Cardinals to rise 12 games above the break-even mark at 60-48, which constitutes two-thirds of a season. Jordan Hicks got four of those outs and, with a perfect seventh, was the only pitcher to set down the side in order in the game at that point. Ryan Helsley got the final four outs to record his 11th save and second in this series.
With Milwaukee's 10-inning loss to Cincinnati, the Cardinals increased their lead to two games at the top of the National League Central Division. It is their largest lead since June 16.
The Yankees, runaway leaders in home runs in the majors at 185, were held within the Busch Stadium confines for all three games until DJ LaMahieu homered in the ninth. The Cardinals didn't have a homer in the first two games of the series either but Nolan Arenado hit a three-run homer in the second inning and Paul DeJong in the eighth.
Arenado erases two Yankee leads in two innings
Arenado singled in the first inning off Frankie Montas to tie the game at 1-1. After the Cardinals had fallen behind in a three-run New York second, the Cardinals’ third baseman capped a five-run home half of the inning by rifling a three-run homer to left.
Montas, just acquired from Oakland, did the one thing a pitcher can’t do after being staked to a three-run lead. He walked the first two hitters he faced that inning, passing DeJong and Yadier Molina to start the second. Tommy Edman struck out but Dylan Carlson doubled to right center, scoring DeJong with Molina stopping at third.
Brendan Donovan walked to fill the bases and Paul Goldschmidt unloaded them a bit by hitting a sacrifice fly. Arenado then found a first-pitch slider to his liking and it was 6-4 after his 22nd homer of the season.
Neither side happy with the umpiring
Home-plate umpire Ed Hickox had upset the Cardinals in the second inning with his adjudication. Then, in the fifth, the Yankees barked and manager Aaron Boone picked up his 23rd career ejection and sixth this season. Pitching coach Matt Blake soon would follow.
Hickox would be cheered later as he stayed in the game on a hot day after being hit in the mask by a foul tip.
Wainwright did not make it out of the fifth inning either giving up a double and a walk to the first two hitters. Newcomer Chris Stratton relieved to fan Marwin Gonzalez and DJ LaMahieu but fell behind in the count to Aaron Judge at 2-0. The only good thing that happened for the Cardinals on the next pitch was that it stayed in the park. Judge, the major-league home run leader at 43, doubled off the center-field wall to score two runs and tie the score again. But only briefly.
DeJong is ‘da man’
DeJong doubled to right, plating Lars Nootbaar from first, to give the Cardinals their second lead of the day at 7-6 in the fifth. Molina fouled out but Tommy Edman singled to center. DeJong, at first, was called out as he tried to slide home but the Cardinals challenged and won it. The Yankees’ bullpen then issued three walks in succession as the Cardinals departed the inning leading 9-6. DeJong has six hits since being recalled from Class AAA Memphis. Three have been doubles and three have been homers.
Carpenter bites the hand
Longtime Cardinal Matt Carpenter put his new team ahead in the first. Carpenter’s sacrifice fly scored LeMahieu to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
This came shortly after a third consecutive sellout Busch Stadium crowd gave Carpenter his third extended standing ovation of the weekend, with Carpenter tapping his helmet over his heart to show his appreciation.
LeMahieu had opened the inning with a double to left center off Wainwright and had gone to third on Judge’s right-side groundout.
NY newcomer struggles
Montas immediately gave up that lead. Carlson, who had been hitless in the first two games of the series, singled to left and Donovan was hit by a pitch. Goldschmidt popped up but Arenado singled to left, with third-base coach “Pop” Warner waving home Carlson against outfielder Andrew Beninendi, whose throw was too late.
Hicks tricks Cardinals in three-run second
Wainwright allowed singles to Gleyber Torres and Benintendi in the second, bringing up Aaron Hicks, nothing for his past 32. Hicks bunted on the first pitch but third baseman Arenado allowed the ball to roll foul. Arenado was playing in on the next pitch but Hicks slapped it past Arenado for a run-scoring single. Wainwright almost escaped the inning by freezing LeMahieu on two consecutive fastballs for a strikeout with the bases loaded.
Then, Wainwright didn’t get the call from Hickox on a first-pitch curveball to Judge. Wainwright regained control of the count but at 1-2, Judge lined a two-run single up the middle.
75 for 74
Wainwright’s curveball, charted at 75 mph, whiffed Jose Trevino for the second time and for the final out of the third. It was the first scoreless half inning of the day. The pitch was Wainwright’s 74th through just three frames. He would reach 102 pitches as he staggered through a scoreless fourth.
1,000 hits at Busch for Molina
Molina’s single in the third was his 1,000th career hit at Busch III, where he is the all-time leader, with Carpenter second at more than 400 behind him. He is only the second catcher to have that man hits in his home park, with St. Louisan and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra having 1,042 at the original Yankee Stadium. A standing ovation was accorded to Molina, as he stood at first base and waved to the crowd.
Good as Gold(y)
In a game that took on a dreadful length of 4 hours 25 minutes, longest in Busch III history, Cardinals Gold Glove first baseman Goldschmidt kept his head in it. He dived to his left to take a game-tying hit away from LeMahieu in the sixth and leaped to his right to snatch Carpenter’s drive in the seventh.
