ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals’ long ascent back to contention in the National League Central Division must start with a shorter climb to .500. They have reached neither yet, but to accomplish one and then another, they have to string together a fistful of series wins.
The first of those came Sunday when the Cardinals squeezed out a 2-1 victory at Busch Stadium over Western Division pacesetter San Francisco. After dropping the first game of the series on Friday, the Cardinals posted 3-1 and 2-1 wins in succession and now are one win shy of .500 at 46-47.
They remain nine games behind first-place Milwaukee but that is a conservation for another day.
A strong start by lefthander Wade LeBlanc, escape-act relief from Ryan Helsley in the sixth inning and more high-octane relief from Genesis Cabrera in the seventh put the Cardinals into position to break through in the home seventh.
Matt Carpenter doubled to lead off the inning against former Cardinal John Brebbia and was run for by Jose Rondon. Paul DeJong, who earlier had hit his 13th homer, sent a fly ball o right field, moving Rondon to third.
On a checked swing, Harrison Bader skimmed a ball to first baseman Lamonte Wade Jr., who was playing in for a play at the plate. The ball went off Wade’s glove as Rondon, running on contact, scored easily and Bader dived in safely at first, beating Brebbia, who had recovered the ball.
Giovanny Gallegos, the Cardinals’ redoubtable eighth-inning man, struck out three men in the eighth and then closer Alex Reyes set two records in the ninth when he posted his 22nd consecutive save of the season and 24th in succession from the start of his career.
Reyes surpassed former Minnesota righthander LaTroy Hawkins, who had 23 consecutive saves at the start of his career for a major league record and also Cardinals Hall of Famer Jason Isringhausen, who had a club record of 23 consecutive saves in 2007-08.
Reyes, who had to survive two walks and a deep fly to right, also tied Tom Henke at 22 for most consecutive saves by a Cardinals reliever in one season (1995).
The Giants missed a chance to jump off to a significant lead when they loaded the bases with one out in the first. Donovan Solano singled to right and Mike Yastrzemski dropped a hit into right where Dylan Carlson failed to make a sliding catch. Solano was hung up between first and second but Carlson threw wide of second and Solano was safe.
Darin Ruf walked to fill the bases. But LeBlanc caught Wilmer Flores looking at three consecutive strikes, the last an 86 mph cutter. Then, LeBlanc retired All-Star Brandon Crawford on a fly to left.
Giants starter Johnny Cueto threw a changeup much to DeJong’s liking and the Cardinals’ shortstop continued his hot hitting by rifling it 407 feet to left for a home run to open the Cardinals’ third. DeJong is 10 for his past 16.
But Ruf launched a third-decker 413 feet off a LeBlanc sinker to tie the game in the fourth. LeBlanc retired the next two hitters easily before Mike Tauchman lashed a drive off the glove of diving first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Second baseman Carpenter quickly gathered up the carom, however, and threw low to pitcher LeBlanc covering and LeBlanc made the reception for the final out before tumbling to the dirt.
LeBlank held the Giants to just three hits for five innings but was pulled after permitting back-to-back hits to Solano and Yastrzemski in the sixth that gave the Giants runners at first and third with nobody out.
But Helsley the best Cardinals reliever at stranding inherited runners kept those two exactly where they were.
Even though Ruf had hit the ball halfway to the moon in his previous at-bat, he was lifted for lefthanded-hitting Wade Jr., who struck out on a 99.3 mph fastball.
Flores flied to short center and Solano was held at third even though Bader’s throw home sailed well off line.
The Cardinals pitched around Crawford, walking him on four pitches—the fourth of which was intentional.
Helsley then amped up a bit more, fanning Tauchman on a 99.8 mph fastball to maintain the tie score. The righthander has allowed four of 25 runners to score.
Former Cardinal Dominic Leone relieved Cueto, still being booed heavily for his kicking of backup catcher Jason LaRue during a fight in Cincinnati 11 years ago. Leone walked Goldschmidt with one out and Tyler O’Neill singled with two out. In their first at-bat with a man in scoring position, Yadier Molina popped up and lefthander Cabrera relieved for the Cardinals in the San Francisco seventh.
Cabrera fanned the first two hitters he faced and, after walking Austin Slater, received help from Gold Glove left fielder O’Neill, who ran down Solano’s drive to the left-center-field gap.
