Cards back Gibson's gem with late rally in DH split

DETROIT -- In Tuesday’s tale of two pitchers, it was hard to choose sides. On one hand were flashes of emotion and plenty of punchouts. The other brought quiet, methodical dependability to the bump.

Jack Flaherty is, of course, well-known to Cardinals fans who either grew to love or hate the fiery righty who stalked the hill in St. Louis for parts of seven seasons. Kyle Gibson is an MLB veteran but a newcomer to the Redbirds’ rotation this season who trends a bit more even-keeled. Both pitchers brought their best into Game 1 of the doubleheader at Comerica Park. Though they went about their business in very different ways, both also stayed true to their brand.

So impressive was the starting pitching, it would have been a shame to see either lose. Thanks to Alec Burleson and Pedro Pagés -- and fortunately for the Cardinals -- neither had to.

Burleson plated the game-tying run with a one-out single in the ninth and Pagés brought home the eventual game-winner one play later on a sacrifice fly as St. Louis topped Detroit, 2-1, in the series opener.

The Cardinals fell, 11-6, in the nightcap.

“Guys kept saying, 'We're going to find a way to steal this one,' and you’ve just got to keep at it,” said manager Oliver Marmol. “... You just have to figure out a way before that last out of the game to get some guys on, and get a big base hit, and we were able to do that.”

Until the late-game drama unfolded, Gibson was on the hook for the loss, and it wasn’t even so much that he blinked first as it was that St. Louis could get nothing going against Flaherty.

Gibson’s lone gaffe across seven crisp innings was a hung four-seamer that Riley Greene drove over the center-field wall in the fourth. The lanky righty had retired all nine Tigers he faced in order to that point, and he didn’t blink while rebounding to sit down the next five he saw.

Gibson wasn’t lighting up the radar the way his opponent was, but the way he was hitting his spots, he didn’t need to. With a fastball that topped out at 92.7 mph against Flaherty’s 97-plus, Gibson nibbled at the corners and used a powerful sinker to rack up a season-high nine strikeouts.

While Gibson quietly strung together his fourth quality start in six tries this season, the spotlight definitely remained on Flaherty. Detroit’s starter was facing his former team for the first time, and it only made sense that he wanted to show off a bit after the Cards shipped him to Baltimore in a Deadline-day deal last summer.

“There was a lot of promise in St. Louis, and things didn’t work out,” Flaherty said at the time. “Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes, and you can’t really do much about it. And now, it’s just about moving forward.”

On Tuesday, Flaherty’s version of moving forward entailed harnessing the magic of his 2019 campaign again. He struck out seven consecutive Cardinals to open the game, which tied an American League record and also marked the first time in the expansion era (since 1961) that St. Louis had started a game that way.

While Flaherty and his career-high 14 punchouts were impossible to ignore, Gibson was certainly no slouch, cruising through to the seventh while allowing just two more singles after Greene’s homer in the fourth inning. Trouble came then, with Gibson earning a mound visit after he walked Carson Kelly to load the bases with two outs.

Gibson had earned the right to face Mark Canha, but it was clear the pinch-hitter was Gibson’s final battle. After a quick chat to talk strategy, Marmol trotted back to the dugout to let fate unfold.

Gibson did not disappoint, eventually dropping in a sweeper past a hard-swinging Canha to end the threat. The Cards hurler allowed himself to break character a bit afterward, letting out a well-deserved howl of celebration and pumping his fist in victory.

“Being able to put up extra zeros there really kind of gives our guys an understanding that you're either a bloop and a blast away from taking the lead, or three singles from tying it,” he said.

Perhaps inspired by their leader, St. Louis took the latter option and ran with it in the ninth, then added Pagés’ sac fly to move ahead for good.

“[Our] offense, they're just really good,” Gibson said. “I know sometimes they get held down, but they believe in themselves, and they're never out of it.”