St. Louis Cardinals defeat Detroit Tigers 9-4 – MLB Update
The St. Louis Cardinals put in a good performance as they took their revenge defeating the Detroit Tigers 9-4 in their Grapefruit League game at Joker Merchant Stadium in Florida on Wednesday, March 16.
In their previous meeting this spring, the Cardinals lost to the Tigers 7-4 at Roger Dean Stadium, but had tried to run at the plate in the bottom of ninth inning after trailing 7-0.
It was the second-straight triumph for the Cardinals after they shut-out rivals Atlanta Braves 4-0 behind on Tuesday when starting pitcher Kyle McClellan threw five scoreless innings with five strike-outs in his third start of Spring Training. Tigers were
enjoying a 13-8 winning streak and lost their ninth game in spring.
Right-handed pitcher Chris Carpenter proved his class making his second start of spring facing the Tigers. Carpenter made his first start since March 1, when he left the game in third inning after a left hamstring strain. He was scratched from his last start
against the Tigers and threw to the Cardinals’ batters instead. He did not succeed in striking out any batter, yet permitted just three runs on six hits in four innings.
"I feel fine right now and I'll be ready for opening day," Carpenter said. "All I need to do now is get my pitch count up and not hurt anything. It felt better as I went along."
He also made two quick moves in the field that proved his full recovery from injury. The moves were so impressive that manager Tony La Russa could not stop himself from praising him.
Cardinals’ hurlers Joe Kelly, Eduardo Sanchez and Brian Tallet contributed with two strike-outs each. Tigers’ starter Phil Coke, who has a 2-1 record with a 1.38 ERA this spring, gave seven runs on five hits including a home-run, posted by centre-fielder
Colby Rasmus who made three runs on two hits in two at-bats.
A new invitee in the camp Adam Wilk consumed just one hit but it went for a home-run off Albert Pujols’ bat. The huge hit was Pujols first homer in spring.
Cardinals will return home on Thursday to play their stadium counterpart Florida Marlins. Jake Westbrook will be starting on Thursday against the Marlins and will be opposed by Josh Johnson.
Tigers remained out of form, as they could not display any considerable performance. Austin Jackson, Will Rhymes, Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera made one run each. The Tigers had aligned their top prospect Andy Dirk, but did not have him bat. He is seventh
with .447 on-base percentage and eight with a .366 batting average this spring.
Tigers will play their next game against Minnesota Twins on Thursday with hope of bouncing-back to their winning ways.
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