There were 3,905 reasons why the Cardinals would snap their losing streak at six games, longest in three years, Wednesday night.
In times of stress, teams often turn to their veteran leadership for answers. In the case of the Cardinals, they could rely on three players who had played 3,905 games, counting postseason, with the Cardinals and only the Cardinals.
And Yadier Molina (38 years old), Adam Wainwright (39) and Matt Carpenter (35), all of whom played in 2011 for the last Cardinals team to win a World Series title, took matters into their own hands Wednesday at Busch Stadium in a streak-snipping 8-2 decision over Cleveland.
Wainwright, who stumbled in the first when Cleveland scored two runs, then held the Indians hitless for 6 1/3 innings before leaving after the seventh. Wainwright also had his first hit of the season, a single, in 21 at-bats.
Molina, who had sat out 2 ½ games with a bruised left knee, ended a protracted first-inning at-bat with a bases-loaded walk, which netted the Cardinals’ first run. And Carpenter promptly made it an inning with a three-run, bases-loaded double.
A mammoth, 451-foot homer by Tyler O’Neill, who also contributed a diving catch in left field for Wainwright, added to the Cardinals’ lead in the third. In the seventh. O’Neill raised his home run distance for the night to 880 feet with a 429-foot shot to deep center after another veteran, Paul Goldschmidt (33), had hit a homer off Cleveland righthander Trevor Stephan earlier in the inning.
The Cardinals, who had lost eight of nine, thus avoided falling back to the .500 mark for the first time since they were 12-12. And they also avoided dropping to .500 in interleague play history. They are 200-198 now.
The Cleveland first featured doubles by Cesar Hernandez and Eddie Rosario and a good running catch by right fielder Tommy Edman, which might have saved another two-bagger.
Converted reliever Jean Carlos Mejia of the Indians almost was out of the Cardinals’ first inning after Edman had opened with his double. Mejia induced Dylan Carlson to fly to center and fanned Goldschmidt. But Nolan Arenado coaxed a walk and speedy O’Neill legged out a tapper down the third-base line to fill the bases.
Mejia got ahead of Molina at 1-2 but the Cardinals’ veteran worked a 10-pitch walk and worked over Mejia in the process.
Not only did Molina’s walk force home a run but it brought to the plate one of the game’s all-time greats at hitting with the bases loaded. Carpenter now is 30 for 61 (.492) with the bases filled and he has 91 RBIs after clearing the bases with his double over the head of first baseman Josh Naylor and into the right-field corner, with even a gimpy Molina hustling home from first to score.
Carpenter, on a seeming, never-ending climb to respectability, had nine hits in his past 21 at-bats after that double. Mejia was finished for the night, trailing 4-2.
O’Neill, who has a club-high 15 homers, followed a double by Arenado with a smash deep into the left-center-field bleachers in the third off Phil Maton.
Wainwright (4-5) retired 20 of 21 men from the first through the seventh, with only Bradley Zimmer reaching base when he was nicked by a pitch in the fifth inning. Only three balls were hit out of the infield in that span against Wainwright, who walked no one and struck out six in a 95-pitch outing.
After the Goldschmidt and O’Neill home runs in the seventh, Molina was hit in the arm by a pitch from Stephan but remained in the game.
Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley finished up for the Cardinals with a scoreless eighth and ninth inning, respectively. The Indians also didn't have a hit against the bullpen either.
