Cards' 'pen can't close door in walk-off loss to Cleveland

CLEVELAND -- For three innings on Sunday, the Cardinals' bullpen had to play with fire.

In the sixth inning, Jordan Hicks entered the game with a runner on second with no one out and proceeded to throw two scoreless innings to preserve the Cardinals' one-run lead.

Two innings later, Génesis Cabrera entered the game with the bases loaded and one out and was able to induce an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.

In the ninth inning, they finally got burned, as Ryan Helsley surrendered a walk-off two-run double to José Ramírez in Cleveland’s 4-3 win at Progressive Field.

Helsley, who threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings on Saturday, surrendered back-to-back walks to Myles Straw (the No. 9 hitter) and Steven Kwan before he was able to get Amed Rosario to fly out. That set the table for Ramírez’s heroics, however, as the star third baseman lined a 1-0 fastball into the right-center-field gap to win the game.

“He definitely lost [his fastball command] there for a couple hitters,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It seemed like he was trying to be perfect and kept missing. It’s tough when you walk the nine-hole in the ninth inning.”

Helsley said that he was struggling with his front side flying open, which led to him missing high and surrendering the two walks. While he was able to adjust in time to get Rosario out, he was still forced to face Ramírez.

“It was a little too late,” Helsley said of his adjustment. “I had to attack someone at some point, and José is a really good hitter.”

Hicks set the tone out of the ‘pen when he threw 18 pitches of 100+ mph in his two scoreless innings of work.

“He did a nice job and mixed in the sinker and the four-seam,” Marmol said. “He gave us two.”

Cabrera’s tightrope walk was just as, if not more, impressive, as the 26-year-old came into the game with no margin for error. The southpaw was able to enter in a better situation, however, as Marmol intentionally walked Josh Naylor (a left-hander) and waited to bring Cabrera in until Will Brennan (another left-hander) was announced as the pinch-hitter.

Cabrera started his battle with Brennan with an 0-1 count after Brennan had a pitch-timer violation, and wasted no time getting him to hit into the double play.

“If you look at Naylor versus [Drew VerHagen], it’s not the best matchup in terms of what Naylor does well,” Marmol said. “Putting him on gets us to [Mike] Zunino and then we could go left-on-left and pick our spot.”

The Cardinals' bullpen was put in a position to hold a lead thanks to a solid start from Jordan Montgomery, who only surrendered two runs in five innings of work. While he allowed seven hits, only two went for extra bases. It was also his first start without allowing a home run since April 29.

“It was a good step in the right direction,” Montgomery said.

After opening the game by allowing three singles in the first inning, Montgomery seemed to settle in as the day went on, and only allowed one runner to advance past third base in his final four innings of work.

Montgomery said that his offspeed pitches felt more effective in this start compared to his last time out, when he allowed four runs in four innings against the Reds.

“I was able to find some momentum and was just attacking the hitters,” he said. “I got some good counts and got some quick outs.”

After only tallying two hits on Saturday, the Cardinals' offense exploded in the fifth inning with solo home runs from Alec Burleson, Andrew Knizner and Paul Goldschmidt that combined to travel more than 1,110 feet, per Statcast.

It was the fourth time this season that the Cardinals had hit three or more home runs in an inning, which is tops in all of baseball.

Still, that strong inning didn’t prove to be enough offense. Outside of the three home runs, the only other time the Cardinals were able to advance a runner past second came in the second inning when Nolan Arenado moved to third on a groundout.

“I thought our guys took some really good swings and weren’t rewarded,” Marmol said.