ST. LOUIS (AP) — Madison Bumgarner pitched five strong innings, Daulton Varsho had two hits and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 on Friday night.
Bumgarner (1-1) outdueled Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright in a game featuring two starters who have combined for 314 career wins.
“For whatever reason, I feel like those guys usually matchup good against me,” Bumgarner said. “So, I had to go out there and really make pitches and feel like we did that.”
Bumgarner threw a season-high 89 pitches in five innings, giving up one run on three hits. Luis Frias, Noé Ramirez, Joe Mantiply and Ian Kennedy combined for four innings of relief, allowing just one run.
The Diamondbacks won for the third time in their last four games, while St. Louis has lost four of six.
Arizona’s Torey Lovullo managed his 729th game, moving past Kirk Gibson for most in franchise history.
“It was just a very, very good team win,” Lovullo said. “There was so many good little things that happened inside of today’s game and we scored six runs against a very good pitcher.”
Wainwright (2-3) struggled with his control, issuing a season-high five walks. He induced double plays to get out of jams in the first and second innings, but the free passes cost him in the third and sixth innings.
“I just didn’t command the ball like I needed to on any of my pitches,” Wainwright said. “It’s tough to get beat, but it’s tougher when you beat yourself and today that’s what I did.”
Varsho’s double scored Geraldo Perdomo, who led off the third inning with a walk, and Pavin Smith followed with a groundout that scored José Herrera to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead.
Wainwright walked Smith to start the sixth, leading to a Cooper Hummel RBI single to extend Arizona’s lead to 3-1. The Diamondbacks tacked on two more in the seventh on a Jordan Luplow pinch-hit RBI single and a David Peralta sacrifice fly.
“The guys, they rose the challenge today,” Hummel said. “They knew we had a good pitcher on the mound and knew how to attack him and knew what pitches they were looking for.”
Paul Goldschmidt’s solo home run in the first snapped an eight-game homerless drought for the Cardinals. The 407-foot blast to left-centerfield came in the 12th pitch of the at-bat.
“I texted him already and said if you’re gonna hit homer, do it on the first pitch and not the 15th,” Bumgarner said.
RULE CHECK
The Cardinals’ second run came on a balk by Frias in the seventh. Originally, the umpires awarded batter Paul DeJong first base because the pitch came on a 3-2 count. But after stopping play and consulting the rule book, Crew Chief Ron Kulpa ordered DeJong back to the plate to finish the at-bat. DeJong flied out on the next pitch.
“We had a good feeling that was going to be the call,” Lovullo said. “And we’ve gotten mixed reports on what the actual rule states and I was going to ask for a rules check and the umpires beat us to it. It was a very confusing play.”
GOOD AS GOLD
The Cardinals’ 1B Goldschmidt, 2B Tommy Edman, 3B Nolan Arenado, LF Tyler O’Neill and CF Harrison Bader were presented with their 2021 Rawlings Gold Glove trophies before the game. The Cardinals were the first team in MLB history to have five Gold Glove winners in the same season. St. Louis’ overall haul of 96 Gold Glove awards are the most all-time for any MLB franchise.
ROSTER MOVES
The Diamondbacks recalled LHP Caleb Smith and selected RHP Keynan Middleton, and optioned LHP Tyler Holton to Triple-A Reno.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: RHP Mark Melancon (undisclosed) was placed on the injured list.
Cardinals: RHP Drew VerHagen (right hip) threw a successful bullpen on Thursday and is scheduled to throw again Saturday.
UP NEXT
RHP Miles Mikolas (1-0, 1.21) will start for the Cardinals in the third of a four-game set Saturday against the Diamondbacks and RHP Merrill Kelly (1-1, 1.69 ERA). Mikolas threw seven scoreless innings in his last start against the New York Mets on Monday. Kelly is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA in two career starts against St. Louis.
Leave a Reply