PHOENIX -- The Cardinals built a seven-run lead and Andre Pallante took a two-hit shutout into the sixth, but the D-backs finally got to the right-hander and kept it going against the bullpen to hand St. Louis a stunning 8-7 walk-off loss in 10 innings on Sunday at Chase Field.
There was a lot to point to. Pallante and Ryne Stanek both walked in a run with a huge lead. José Fermín got overly aggressive on a play in left field that resulted in an inside-the-park home run. Pinch-runner Bryan Torres got doubled off at first base on a soft popup in the 10th inning.
But before the collapse, there were definitely some positives.
With the game scoreless heading into the third, Blaze Jordan’s RBI triple began a rally against D-backs All-Star lefty Eduardo Rodriguez that had the Cardinals sitting pretty. JJ Wetherholt plated Jordan with a ground ball through a drawn-in infield, Derby champ Jordan Walker extended his on-base streak to 21 games with an RBI double off the wall in left-center and Alec Burleson finished the five-run outburst with a two-run single in a left-on-left matchup that finally bore fruit for the first baseman.
Burleson, who went 3-for-5 on Sunday, came up with two on and two out in the seventh inning of Saturday’s 5-3 loss and hit one on the screws against lefty Brandyn Garcia, but it was right at right fielder Corbin Carroll.
“That’s been my whole year, really, against lefties,” Burleson said. “I feel like I hit the ball hard, take good swings, they just hit the wrong hands. The positive is it was a good swing … but in the moment, it is pretty frustrating.”
On Sunday, Burleson got the result he was looking for against a lefty, but the frustration was saved for a postgame clubhouse that a few innings earlier was headed for a second-half-opening series win. Instead, the Cardinals head to Anaheim knowing they let one get away here in the desert.
“I’ll tell you one thing: There’s a lot of learning opportunities in that one,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “It stings. It sucks. No one is more disappointed than me, but at the end of the day, we gave that one away.”
Despite the loss, Burleson’s success at the plate on Sunday supported a theme Marmol spent much of the weekend talking about: The process is vastly more important than the outcome, and if your process is good, the results will follow.
In his pregame session with the media, Marmol pointed to Burleson’s at-bat on Saturday and a deep two-out lineout by Nathan Church an inning later that center fielder Jorge Barrosa tracked down for an impressive over-the-shoulder catch.
Two great at-bats, but both resulted in outs.
Marmol and his staff make it a policy to reassure players in the immediate aftermath that moments like those are wins, even when they don’t have the desired outcome.
“Sometimes the process was great. But the result was not, so you have to reaffirm the fact that what we value as a staff and how you’re being evaluated as a player is positive,” Marmol said. “Because if you leave them alone in their own thoughts after that outcome, they just see it as an 0-for-1 and they can start to head down a road that you don’t need them to head down.”
Marmol believes everybody needs to hear positive reinforcement to perform at their best, even the best baseball players in the world.
“Especially in a game where you can do everything right and still have it not go your way,” said Marmol, “it’s good to have someone come behind you and let you know that the process was right and just to keep going.”
On the other side of the coin, Marmol understands how fan frustration can build when the results aren’t happening, regardless of the process, and Sunday’s heartbreaker absolutely fits that bill.
“Fans should only care about the result, in my opinion,” Marmol said. “Our process should be good enough that it produces good results. Fans get to taste the final product and tell us if it’s good or not, so they should only care about the result. I’m OK with that.”
Fans can take some solace in the fact that St. Louis still holds a share of the third National League Wild Card spot heading into a rare showdown with the 39-61 Angels at Angel Stadium, where the Cardinals have played only nine games in their history.