ST. LOUIS -- Throwing more balls than strikes when the count has exceeded 100 pitches generally is not a recipe for victory. But Cardinals lefthander Kwang Hyun Kim, exiting the 10-day injured list following his recovery from his second lower back injury of the spring, managed to keep his team in the game Tuesday night at Busch Stadium despite throwing only 49 strikes out of 102 offerings.
That was because Kim forced the Miami Marlins to strand six runners in the first three innings before he sped through his final three innings. The Cardinals, who had only one hit off lefthanded rookie Trevor Rogers in the first five innings, packaged two hits, a stolen base and Rogers’ error for a run in the sixth to tie the score.
Then, for the second night in succession, the Cardinals broke a tie in their final at-bat as Paul Goldschmidt, who had knocked in the first run, crushed his ninth homer to right center to lead off the ninth against Yimi Garcia to provide a 2-1 walk-off win for the Cardinals before 24,736, the Cardinals’ second-best home crowd of season.
