After their second consecutive win in the ninth inning or later, the Giants were looking to complete their first sweep of the Cardinals on Sunday since 2001.
They would have to wait.
Adam Wainwright stymied a Posey-less Giants offense and the Cardinals lineup continued to trouble Matt Cain as St. Louis beat the Giants 8-3, preventing San Francisco from completing a sweep for the second series in a row.
Sunday’s match-up consisted of two of the National League’s arms of yesteryear — both Cain and Wainwright were once two of the most feared names in the league. However due to both age and respective injuries, both pitchers have had to “recraft” their pitching styles to make a comeback.
Wainwright would take the victory in this battle, giving up just five hits and one earned run over 6.1 innings. He struck out six, including pinch-hitter Michael Morse with two runners on for the Giants for his final batter of the day and left to a standing ovation courtesy of Busch Stadium.
Cain’s woes against St. Louis continued Sunday, as he served up seven earned runs and nine hits over 5.1 innings and fell to 3-2 on the season. Although Cain’s 2017 has been consistently solid, and perhaps the most reliable start of the rotation, he has routinely run into trouble with St. Louis. Coming into Sunday’s game, he was 2-5 over 12 career games against St. Louis with a 6.19 ERA. Sunday was no exception, as the Cardinals jumped on Cain early and never looked back.
St. Louis would first strike in the bottom of the second, tagging Matt Cain for four runs. With the bases-loaded, Randal Grichuk seized the second pitch he saw from Cain and roped it to left for a three-run double. Dexter Fowler drove in Grichuk via sac fly two batters later to cap off the inning, putting the Giants in a big hole early.
Christian Arroyo, fresh off his go-ahead game-winning double in the 13th inning Saturday night, responded and put the Giants on the board with a RBI double in the third. It would be the only scoring play for the Giants until Brandon Crawford and Eduardo Nunez sent back-to-back solo-shots off reliever Miguel Socolovich in the eighth. The bashes marked the 14th and 15th consecutive solo home runs for the Giants. They have not homered with a runner on base since Hunter Pence’s two-run shot against the Mets on May 8.
The Cardinals would add on to their lead in the fifth when Matt Carpenter added to his dominance over Cain and launched a two-run home run into the Cardinals bullpen for his ninth big fly of the year. Before facing Cain Sunday, Carpenter was 7-13 against the right-hander. But the ultimate dagger came in the bottom of the sixth when Wainwright helped his own cause with an RBI-double that knocked Cain out of the game.
Grichuk struck again in the eighth off Cory Gearrin, when Denard Span appeared to have not picked up Grichuk’s deep fly ball to center. It would bounce on the warning track and over the fence for an RBI ground-rule double to make the score 8-3.
If the Giants had been able to complete the sweep, it would’ve marked the first time San Francisco had swept St. Louis on the road since 1998. Regardless, with the series win, the Giants have now won three consecutive series for the first time this season.
The Giants head to Wrigley Field for the second half of the road trip, a four-game series against the reigning World Series champion Cubs. Ty Blach (1-2, 4.15 ERA) will face off against John Lackey (4-3, 4,37 ERA). Game time is set for 5:05 p.m.
