MINNEAPOLIS -- It was the battle of the bullpens between the Cardinals and Twins on Friday night at Target Field. It was difficult for the relievers to record outs on both sides. In fact, they allowed a combined 10 runs in the game. When it was over, the Twins ended up on top, 9-8.
St. Louis had a 8-7 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. Normally, left-hander JoJo Romero would have been in the game for the team, but he was used two straight days against the Mets. Instead, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol went with right-hander Ryne Stanek, who already allowed a game-tying homer to Kody Clemens an inning earlier.
Stanek simply didn’t have it. Royce Lewis led off the inning and homered on the first pitch to tie the game at 8. Two batters later, Brooks Lee gave the Twins the lead with a solo homer. Stanek didn’t have any excuses for the letdown. It just wasn’t his night.
“My job was to go out there and throw strikes, not walk guys and attack the zone,” Stanek said. “I got beat [by Lewis] on the first pitch on an up and in heater. Not a terrible pitch, but he just got it.
“The slider that I threw to Lee just didn’t get down enough. It was where I was going, but not under the zone. The one to Clemens, I was trying to go after him, and he put a good swing on it. He put it out to right. I don’t think I ever gave up three home runs in a game before. It was a tough day. I don’t have a lot of words for it.”
Marmol didn’t dwell on the loss. He said the bullpen is the reason the team has a respectable 37-30 record entering Saturday.
“A big part of where we are at, our pitching held up well,” Marmol said. “It’s unfortunate it happened all at once the way it came about.”
It was not a tough day for the offense, which went 7-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Jordan Walker came through once again with a three-run double in the seventh, which gave St. Louis a 7-4 lead.
Alec Burleson continued his hot streak by hitting a home run in his fourth straight game and extending his hitting streak to 12 games. During that period, Burleson is 17-for-49 (.347) with five homers and 15 RBIs.
The team also introduced Blaze Jordan, the 25th best prospect in the organization according to MLB Pipeline. Making his Major League debut, Jordan went 2-for-4 with an RBI. He is expected to be the everyday third baseman.
“The offense did their job,” Marmol said. The offense battled extremely well. … [Jordan] did a really nice job. He seemed relaxed. He was in the moment. He had some really good at-bats. He did exactly as advertised. He took some big swings for us today. The lineup has some length to it. It’s a nice little lineup. It’s going to be fun to watch. Today was a tough one to lose, but there were a lot of things that went well. There were some opportunities we didn’t cash in on. You can’t cash them all in.”