Burleson retakes RBI lead, Mathews racks up K's as Cards win twin bill opener

CINCINNATI -- The learning curve continues for 25-year-old Quinn Mathews.

The Cardinals turned to the lefty as their 27th man in Game 1 of Monday’s day-night doubleheader to make his second Major League start. He gave them four innings of one-run ball, throwing 95 pitches in the process.

Alec Burleson provided the offensive support and five relievers took care of the rest. Burleson reclaimed the MLB lead in RBIs by driving in two runs early and six St. Louis pitchers combined to hold the Reds to three hits in a 2-1 win in the opener.

Luis Gastelum (3-2) struck out two in a perfect fifth inning to pick up the win in relief of Mathews. Riley O’Brien struck out the side in the ninth to secure his 31st save in 36 chances.

Following a Dane Myers homer leading off the fourth, St. Louis pitching combined to retire 14 straight before Sal Stewart’s two-out double in the eighth. The Cardinals retired 18 of the final 19 Cincinnati batters.

The Cardinals took advantage of an early lack of command from Cincinnati lefty Kent Emanuel, making his first career MLB start and his first appearance of any kind in the Majors since 2024 with Miami.

Emanuel hit Joshua Báez with his second pitch and then walked Iván Herrera. But following Jordan Walker’s strikeout, Burleson drove an Emanuel sinker down the right-field line to drive in two runs and leapfrog Stewart and Washington’s C.J. Abrams for the Majors’ RBI lead with 92.

“Just a natural hitter,” raved Cardinals manager Oli Marmol of the left-handed slugger. “He wants the lefties. He made it a point that ‘I need to get better at this if I [want] to be a more well-rounded hitter, regardless of righty, lefty.’

“And you look at his at-bats left on left, and he's done a really nice job. But that's a big swing right there to get us going.”

What made it all the more important was giving their rookie lefty a lead when facing Elly De La Cruz and Stewart at the top of the Cincinnati order.

“I mean, facing that top part of the lineup to start a game is not easy,” Marmol said. “So I was glad we were able to get two across there.”

As it turned out, Mathews and the Cardinals bullpen managed to handle the Cincinnati slumping star well, striking De La Cruz out in all four of his plate appearances.

Mathews, making his first since Aug. 1 at Toronto, struck out the first four Cincinnati batters before Myers singled to right with one out in the second.

Myers got to Mathews again in the fourth when he launched an 85 mph slider deep into the lower bleachers in left for his fourth homer of the season on the 11th pitch of the at-bat.

“I beat him on the fastball, and I kind of beat him on the curveball in a sense. And for some reason, I shook to the slider, and again, that's on me, not anybody else,” Mathews said. “That's on me. I shook to that pitch, and that's a learning experience.

“Being a young pitcher that thinks I know how to pitch, and then you know, a guy proves to me that I don't, and that's all right. But a learning experience, and like I said, there's probably other avenues I should have gone after specifically with him … but you throw a bad pitch in a bad location, and good hitters hit mistakes, and that's exactly what he did.”

Mathews was relieved by Gastelum to start the fifth, one inning shy of qualifying for the win. The lefty was charged with the one run on two hits (both by Myers), striking out seven and walking three in four innings. Monday before a crowd of 20,434 was certainly a different atmosphere compared to Aug. 1 when over 41,000 turned out for Kevin Gausman’s final start in Toronto and he was making his big league debut.

“That Toronto atmosphere was pretty elite,” Mathews said. “It's going to be hard to top Kevin Gausman's last outing as a Blue Jay at home, specifically. But still amped up, still nerves, all that comes with it. Grateful for a second opportunity. You never know if you're going to get one of those or not after the first one. So just grateful to get the opportunity to pitch for the Cardinals once again.”