Cardinals Sweep Giants, Set up for Huge Final Week of Season

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AP

St. Louis Cardinals’ Tyler O’Neill hits a walk-off home run to defeat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 in the 10th inning of a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Josh Calloni, reporter

The Cardinals faced the Giants this weekend in a huge series, and left the weekend with a sweep.

Friday night, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner faced off against John Gant. The Cardinals made quick work off of Bumgarner in the first, as Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single to drive in Matt Carpenter. However, that lead didn’t last long, as John Gant walked in Evan Longoria, making the game tied. In the 5th and 6th, Kolten Wong had RBI singles that drove in Harrison Bader and Jedd Gyorko. Entering the 7th, the score was 3-1. In the 7th, Jordan Hicks allowed two runs on RBI’s from Evan Longoria and Gregor Blanco. However, in the 8th Matt Adams did what he’s best at, hitting a two run, pinch hit, double, making the final score 5-3, and Carlos Martinez came on in the 9th for the save.

“The Cardinals looks really good right now, coming off a sweep of the Giants. Taking 4 or 5 of the last 6 games would be huge, as they could even win the division,” senior Thomas Randazzo said.

On Saturday, the game was much more tame, though more runs had scored. The final was 5-4, and the game was made interesting late. Adam Wainwright was left in the game a bit to long, and gave up four runs in 7 innings, thanks to RBI’s from Aramis Garcia, Joe Panik and Gregor Blanco. Wainwright drove in a run in the 2nd, and Paul DeJong another in the 3rd. Yadier Molina hit a clutch, game tying home run in the 7th. That set the scene for Tyler O’Neill in the 9th to hit a walkoff, solo home run, the 11th walk off win for the Cardinals in 2018.

“O’Neills walk off blast was just another chapter in a very exciting season for the Cardinals. I hope they can make a deep playoff run this year, it would be great to see, especially after they fired Matheny in July,” senior Austin Hoffman said.

Sunday’s game, unlike the two prior, were very less contested. The Cardinals won 9-2, thanks to a big 6th inning, where the team scored 5 runs. RBI’s from Bader, Carpenter, DeJong, Martinez, Munoz and Mikolas helped the team hit 9 runs. Carpenter hit his 36th home run, and his first in nearly a month. Miles Mikolas went 7 innings allowing only 2 runs, on a home run from Brandon Crawford. Giovanny Gallegos made his Cardinals debut, closing out the 9th. Also in this game, prospect infielder Edmundo Sosa made his MLB debut, walking and scoring on Carpenter home run.

The Cardinals have 6 games remaining to try to hold a wild card spot, and maybe even clinch the division.