Rain cuts Leahy's solid start short, but 'pen holds on as Cards rally

ST. LOUIS -- Kyle Leahy was poised to give a stretched bullpen a much-needed reprieve. Mother Nature had a different plan.

A two hour, 44-minute rain delay cut Leahy’s promising start short, leaving six innings for a bullpen that has been stretched thin as the Cardinals wind down a stretch of 14 games in 13 days heading into the All-Star break.

It turns out, the relievers were up to the task as the Cardinals rallied for a 2-1 win Friday night ... errr, Saturday morning.

George Soriano, Justin Bruihl, Ryne Stanek and JoJo Romero (1-2) combined for five innings of solid relief, allowing just one run. Riley O’Brien earned his 23rd save in 27 opportunities this season.

“Obviously the rain sucks, having Kyle's outing cut short,” O’Brien said. “He looked really good. Yeah, it feels good that, you know, we can turn the game over to the bullpen and we can keep it close. And yeah, I thought everyone threw the ball really well today.”

The relievers allowed just two hits in six innings, struck out five, walked one and hit a batter. They retired nine of the final 10 batters they faced.

“[Soriano] being able to give us two today was great, or just being able to go out there for multiples, and then Bruihl, and he did a really nice job for us,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “He was a big part of us being able to get to the back end there, and Stanek and JoJo and Riley. So yeah, phenomenal job by the entire pitching staff.”

Austin Riley’s RBI single gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning.

Jordan Walker’s RBI single in the sixth drew the Cardinals even at one.

Jimmy Crooks, who entered as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning, homered off Danny Young in the eighth, which proved to be the game winner. Crooks’ Statcast-projected 405-foot blast over the right-center-field wall was just his second hit in six at-bats against a lefty this season.

“It's definitely a different atmosphere, but it was all team effort,” Crooks said. “You know, the pitchers did their thing; they dominated, and they held [the Braves] to a one-run ballgame pretty much the whole game, and then they competed all the way through the end. And then, ultimately, I just got a sweeper that [Young] hung, and I hit it.”

Leahy appeared to be on the way to one of his more impressive starts of the season until a prolonged downpour turned parts of the field into a lake.

Leahy retired the first eight batters he faced, and a Jim Jarvis infield single was the only blemish on his brief night. But after throwing three pitches in the top of the fourth, the sky opened and Leahy’s night was over.

“I thought probably the best he's looked in the way he was using his stuff and attacking,” Marmol said. “He continues to get better, and I wish we would have been able to see more of him today because he was on track to do some really good things tonight.”

Leahy struck out two, didn’t walk anyone and 29 of his 44 pitches were strikes.

Leahy appreciated the bullpen’s work.

“One run over six innings, that's a great start,” Leahy said. “So they did a great job.”

The game lasted just two hours, 23 minutes, meaning the delay was 21 minutes longer than the actual game itself. Marmol was impressed with how his young team handled the extended break.

“You have to learn how to just not stay locked in the entire time,” Marmol said. “That's a long time to try to stay focused. So, do what you need to do to decompress a little bit, and then we'll give you a heads up as to how close we are to locking it back in. The guys did a really nice job of doing exactly that.

“That was a tough game for a lot of reasons: the rain delay, the conditions, having to be basically a bullpen day, knowing what we just came out of. So, guys did a phenomenal job.”