ST. LOUIS -- As if falling behind by four runs in the first three innings wasn’t daunting enough, the Cardinals also had the unenviable task of trying to launch a comeback on Tuesday night against Tarik Skubal, the American League’s reigning Cy Young award winner.
However, just as it had done against numerous aces -- the Astros' Framber Valdez, the Phillies' Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola (twice), the Pirates' Paul Skenes (twice), the Twins' Pablo López and the Nationals' MacKenzie Gore -- St. Louis kept systematically clawing well enough to knock the hard-throwing Skubal out of Tuesday’s game.
Ultimately, the Cardinals saw their six-game winning streak at Busch Stadium come to an end on Tuesday, but only after blossoming reliever Kyle Leahy surrendered his first earned run in more than a month in a 5-4 loss to the Tigers. The theme that St. Louis took away from the night was the fight and resolve that it showed against Skubal, who came into the night on a 4-0 jag over a six-start stretch during which he had struck out 61 and walked just two.
“I mean, we’re just not making a big deal about who we’re facing,” said third baseman Nolan Arenado, who broke out of a 3-for-30 slump when he drilled a Skubal slider a Statcast-projected 387 feet for a two-run home run. “There are so many great arms in this game, and we know that [Skubal] is one of the top top 1 percent of them. But it could be anyone’s night, and we have confidence in who we are.”
St. Louis had plenty of reason to be confident despite the opposition on the mound after entering the night having won 13 of the past 15 games. That stirring stretch included a seven-series undefeated run (6-0-1) and one it will try to extend in Wednesday’s rubber match.
Despite the defeat, the Cardinals came away from Tuesday still emboldened that they are on the right track and knowing they can do damage against any pitcher -- even one usually as dominant as Skubal.
“Their starter did a nice job, but at the same time, I don’t think he was comfortable at all, not one inning of that game,” said manager Oliver Marmol, whose team missed out on a chance to tie the Tigers and Mets for most home wins with 17. “You look at the swings we put on him, starting with [Masyn] Winn, the second batter of the game. … There were a lot of positives against a really good arm. I feel like our at-bats, our intent and our approach were exactly what we wanted to see against that guy. It was a good matchup.”
Tigers manager A.J Hinch, whose squad entered the night with MLB’s best record, took notice of how St. Louis worked deep in counts, fouled off numerous pitches and wore down Skubal between his eight strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
"They just did a really good job of making him work and making him battle,” said Hinch, whose team rode a leadoff home run from Kerry Carpenter and a four-RBI night from Riley Greene. “They drove his pitch count up a little bit. They frustrated him a little bit just by the quality of their at-bats. And so, when they got a little bit closer, they picked up a little bit of momentum.”
Maybe the biggest positive to come out of Tuesday for St. Louis was the way Arenado swung the bat one day after he dropped from cleanup spot in the order to the No. 6 spot because of his continued struggles. On Monday, when the Cardinals clubbed the Tigers for 11 runs and 16 hits to win the series opener, Arenado was the only starter without a hit. But that changed in the fifth inning when he jumped on the first pitch he saw from Skubal and clubbed it down the left-field line for his fifth home run of the season.
“He threw a slider, I saw it pretty good, and I stayed through it and was able to put a good swing on it,” said Arenado, who has been working in recent days to try and lift more balls pull-side -- as he did early in his career when he was compiling many of his 346 career home runs. “He’s probably the best in the game, and he’s got a great arm. I was just trying to square it up, and I was able to do that.”
Skubal was disappointed with his command to Arenado. "I missed [my location] by about 20 inches," Skubal cracked. "So, that's not what you really want, but he's a good player, pretty good swing on the ball, and unfortunate that that's a two-run blast, but it is what it is."