RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 22: Quinn Mathews #60 of the St. Louis Cardinals throws a pitch in the bottom of the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on August 22, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The St. Louis Cardinals have played some very tight one-run games lately. Saturday night was not one of those games as the Philadelphia Phillies jumped all over Quinn Mathews early and clobbered the Cardinals Saturday night in Philly.
The trouble for Quinn Mathews started in the bottom of the 1st inning when he walked Kyle Schwarber. Trea Turner followed that with a single to left. It looked like Mathews might escape with minimal damage when he struck out Bryce Harper and got Luis Arraez to fly out, but that was not to be. Alec Bohm singled in the Phillies first run and then Edmundo Sosa doubled to center scoring two more runs. By the time the bottom of the 1st was over, it was 3-0 Phillies.
The game started to get away from Mathews in the Cardinals in the bottom of the 3rd inning when with one out the Phillies got back-to-back-to-back singles from Arraez, Bohm and Sosa to load the bases. Bryan De La Cruz unloaded a couple of those bases with a single that scored two giving the Phillies a commanding 5-0 lead. Philadelphia wasn’t done as J.T. Realmuto lifted a sacrifice fly to right for another Phillies run and then Hill doubled to left to increase the Philadelphia lead to 7-0. By this time, we could sense this would be a long night.
Quinn Mathews night would end after 5 innings and his numbers were not pretty (unlike the string of pearls he wears). Quinn gave up 10 hits, 7 earned runs striking out 3 and walking 1. This was not what he and the Cardinals had in mind for an ideal outing. Ryan Fernandez would enter the game and wouldn’t fare much better, but more on that soon.
The Cardinals finally scored in the top of the 6th inning. Blaze Jordan led off with a double to right and then he was moved to third by a sacrifice fly from JJ Wetherholt. It looked like St. Louis might squander their opportunity when Herrera popped out to first for the second out, but Alec Burleson picked him up by singling to left scoring Jordan and giving the Cardinals a run – finally – making it a slightly less embarrassing 7-1 Phillies lead.
That lack of embarrassment would be short-lived as the Phillies would really pile on in the bottom of the 6th inning. It started with a J.T. Realmuto double to left followed by a Crawford single to left. Kyle Schwarber hit a sacrifice fly to right giving Philadelphia their 7-run lead back at 8-1. They weren’t done by a long shot. Turner singled to right which advanced Crawford to third. Bryce Harper, who had struck out 3 times earlier, destroyed an 84 mph Ryan Fernandez changeup launching it 390 feet into the right field stands kicking the Phillies lead into double digits at 11-1.
One of the few happy moments came in the top of the 8th inning when JJ Wetherholt barreled an 89 mph cutter from Phillies reliever Alvarado and sent it 403 feet over the centerfield wall for the second Cardinals run of the game. That gives JJ 17 home runs for the season. The score was still embarrassing, but at least St. Louis had 2 runs.
There was comedic relief in the bottom of the 8th inning when it was position player as pitcher time. Pedro Pagés was the guy who drew the lucky straw and nearly paid dearly for his sacrifice as Crawford drilled a ball directly up the middle that whizzed by Pedro’s head. He fared better than any of the Cardinals real pitchers Saturday night as he only gave up one run on a Kyle Schwarber hulk smash that made the score 12-2 Philly.
For scorekeeping purposes, I shall include the fact that Nathan Church hit a triple and scored in the top of the 9th inning and scored on a groundout by Fermin to make the final score 12-3.
The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up a long road trip on Sunday as they try again against the Philadelphia Phillies. Kyle Leahy is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals while the Phillies will give the ball to Cristopher Sánchez. First pitch is set for 12:45pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
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