Kyle McClellan’s dominant pitches help St. Louis Cardinals overpower Houston Astros, 4-2: MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals’ starter, Kyle McClellan, had a notable day with the ball as he threw eight innings and had five strike-outs in the club’s 4-2 win against the Houston Astros at the Busch Stadium, St. Louis, on May 19.
McClellan allowed two runs on five hits with two earned runs. He pitched with an ERA of 3.43 and gave away no walk. McClellan said of his game, “I don't know what my pitch count was, but I thought I was throwing a lot of strikes. That's when I'm at my best,
locating down in the zone.”
No score was added from both sides during first inning. Gerald Laird drove a shot for double off the left field spot while Allen Craig and Colby Rasmus posted two runs collectively to give the Cardinals an initial 2-0 lead. The third inning again went score-less
for both teams. The Astros got off the mark with a single run during fourth inning Clint Barmes scored a single run on the sacrifice bunt of Carlos Lee.
The score-board was 2-1 at the end of fourth inning. The pitchers again threw the ball in perfect spot and stopped the hammerings of the batters from both sides. In this way, the fifth inning passed away without score. The Cardinals extended their lead to
3-1 in the sixth inning when Craig hit a homer of 366 feet towards the left field area.
Albert Pujols again failed to prove his position as he went 0-for-3 and had only one walk at the plate. But he gave the Cardinals some support by reaching at the first base. Pujols said of the game, “When we don't show up with our offense, they show up with
their pitching. We put up two or three runs and it almost looks like the game is over.”
The seventh inning again went in favour of the Cardinals as they got a 4-1 lead with a single run of Daniel Descalso on the single of Ryan Theriot to left field. During eighth inning, the Astros added their second run when Humberto Quintero scored a single
on the wild pitch of McClellan. The score-card moved to 4-2 after the eighth inning. In the last inning, the batters from both sides did not score a single run.
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