St. Louis Cardinals overpower Kansas City Royals 9-8 – MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals succeeded in overpowering Kansas City Royals 9-8 at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday, May 22.
Drawing 13 walks in a seemingly unending four hour game, it was Colby Rasmus who had five walks, all of them coming off of different pitchers.
The game which witnessed a close 7-7 tie in the 10th inning went out of the Royals’ hands when Tim Collins threw four unexpectedly bad pitches, allowing Rasmus to go for a tiebreaking score. "A couple of (at-bats) they didn't give me nothing,
really," Rasmus said. "And a couple of times I battled off some tough pitches. They threw me some good pitches and I battled them to a walk."
There were also fuming, though largely unexpressed, anger over the decisions of umpire. As Cardinals drew 13 walks, the Royals were barely able to get one that culminated in arguments with the plate umpires.
“You've got a young umpire back there and out of respect we try not to say too much to him from the bench," said Yost. "The zone was tight and Matt Treanor did a great job there. Nobody knew they were arguing until he turned around and he was out of the
game."
After two scoreless innings, Daniel Descalso scored the first run for Cardinals, while Allen Craig earned a two-run homer, taking the lead to 3-0. Alex Gordon came back with a single for Royals to bring the lead down to 3-1.
However, Yadier Molina struck a three-run homer, taking the lead to 6-1, punishing Sean O'Sullivan of the Royals. While O'Sullivan had difficulty containing the Cardinals’ offence, Jaime Garcia was too dominant to allow the Royals’ hitters go for any major
hit.
O'Sullivan gave up two more hits in the fifth inning and allowed a run to Matt Holliday which took the Cardinals’ score to 7-1. However, there came a twist in the match just when Cardinals were apparently safe in the game.
Garcia gave up three hits in the sixth inning and allowed one run to Mile Aviles that brought the lead down to 7-2. Jeff Francoeur scored the third run for Royals, while Wilson Betemit hit a two-run homer to make it 7-5 for the Royals.
Wilson Betemit’s second homer of the game levelled the score in the seventh inning. However, Rasmus reversed everything in the 10th inning. The Cardinals scored two runs by drawing constant walks without any hit in the inning and made it 9-7.
Brayan Pena put up a concerted effort to pull back the game in the Royals’ favour but Fernando Salas thwarted his attempts. Salas gave up two hits in the 10th inning and allowed only one run to win the game 9-8.
Despite this 2-1 series victory, the Cardinals saw their backup catcher Gerald Laird falling victim to a pitch that broke the top of his right hand’s finger.
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