ANAHEIM — It was déjà vu for all the wrong reasons for the Cardinals on Monday night.
The day prior, the Cardinals saw a seven-run lead over the D-backs disappear in the late innings and eventually lost in extra innings. On Monday night, they were two outs away from closing the door on a win before a devastating game-tying double put the winning run on third base.
After an intentional walk to load the bases, right-hander Riley O’Brien plunked Jo Adell to seal a 3-2 walk-off loss against the Angels at Angel Stadium.
“As young as our team is, I think we've bounced back pretty well,” right-hander Kyle Leahy said. “I don't think anybody came into the clubhouse today bringing anything from yesterday with them. And I expect the same going into tomorrow. It sucks, but I'm not too concerned about everybody. You can be mad for 10 minutes here, but eat some food, go home, come back and we got another game to play.”
O’Brien had been solid for the Cardinals all year, earning his first nod to the All-Star Game, but his command slipped Monday night.
Holding onto a 2-1 lead, he struck out Mike Trout to begin the ninth inning, but things unraveled from there.
O’Brien allowed a single to Nolan Schanuel and then hit Jorge Soler with a pitch. Then, he left a sinker over the middle of the plate to Vaughn Grissom, who drilled it the other way off the wall in right field for a game-tying double.
With the winning run on third, O’Brien intentionally walked Josh Lowe to load the bases for a potential double play. But it never came.
After falling behind to a 3-0 count to Jo Adell, O’Brien’s next offering went off target and hit Adell in the elbow to walk it off.
“Just didn't have a good feel for the ball today,” O’Brien said.
Offensively, the Cardinals only managed to score two runs on four hits on the evening, with both runs coming in the second inning.
“[Angel's starter José Soriano’s] a really good arm,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He's done a nice job. They got some swing-and-miss stuff in their 'pen, too. [José] Fermin’s throwing 98 to 100 [mph]. He's behind in counts, using the secondary stuff. They did a really nice job. So, overall, they got some good firepower down there.”
The Angels were held at bay until the ninth inning thanks to another strong outing from Leahy.
He tossed six innings of one-run ball on three hits, no walks and four strikeouts. The only blemish was a leadoff home run to Adell in the third inning. Other than that, the Angels failed to even reach scoring position against Leahy.
Over his last five starts, Leahy has allowed only two earned runs in 25 1/3 innings to lower his ERA on the season from 4.63 to 3.59.
“I think just learning stuff every time I go out there and learning how to manage a game and use my pitches, when to use them, how to read the bats in tandem with the scouting report,” Leahy said of the adjustments he’s made over his last five outings. “It's just getting a better feel for everything and maybe a few balls going my way or something like that. That always helps. You just try to learn something every time you go out there and build on it.”