'Courageous' Naughton clutch in Cardinals' win

ST. LOUIS -- Busch Stadium was roaring with fury and noise, the Dodgers were stirring toward a potential 26th come-from-behind victory and former NL MVP Cody Bellinger stood menacingly at the plate and looking to do damage.

Ironically, the calmest, coolest guy in the building was Cardinals left-hander Packy Naughton, who turned to breathing exercises taught to him years earlier to calm his nerves and slow his heart rate. While focusing on an object -- in this instance, the top of the foul pole in right field -- Naughton gulped in as much air as his lungs could hold, counted for a few seconds and then exhaled. He repeated that sequence before toeing the rubber and attacking Bellinger with three of the most important pitches of his two-year MLB career. When that final pitch -- one that clocked in at 94.6 mph -- sailed past Bellinger for a strikeout that concluded a nearly impossible escape job by Naughton, the 26-year-old reliever shed his calm exterior and unleashed some fury of his own.

“I was pumped and I think I let out a little expletive,” joked Naughton, who entered the game with a career 0-6 record but left with one of the most clutch holds of his career. “It was fun, and fun seeing the guys, and it was just a really cool moment.”

A Cardinals team that has ridden the exploits of All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado most of the season gutted out a 7-6 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday because of the contributions from lesser-heralded players such as Naughton, who entered with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the seventh and got two flyouts and the strikeout of Bellinger. St. Louis also used home runs from its oldest player (42-year-old Albert Pujols) and its youngest (22-year-old Nolan Gorman), appearances from seven pitchers, three RBIs from struggling No. 9 hitter Andrew Knizner and a surprise appearance from rap star Nelly. When Pujols cranked the 685th home run of his career, Nelly was there to double high-five the Cardinals' legend through the netting near the on-deck circle.

“Our big dogs are at the top of the order for a reason, and we’re usually trying to hop on, ride as long as we can, but it’s always good to take a little pressure off those guys who are grinding,” said Knizner, whose final RBI proved to be the insurance run the Cardinals needed. “It’s nice to give those guys a breather with us stringing some hits together at the bottom of the order. We’re already a good offense, but if we can get all nine guys going, we can really be scary down the stretch.”

Scary was a good way to describe things late for St. Louis, who saw its 6-1 edge shrink to 6-5 by the seventh inning. When reliever Junior Fernández allowed the first four batters of the inning to reach, Naughton entered with the bases loaded. It was significant that Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol turned to Naughton over veteran sinker-ball pitcher T.J. McFarland, and that likely happened because of a sequence of events that took place a week earlier in Atlanta.

Last week, Naughton was asked to cover a 2 1/3-inning outing against the Braves -- the kind of lengthy appearance that occasionally can put a reliever in jeopardy of getting demoted to the Minors -- to save fellow reliever Jordan Hicks from having to work. Then on Thursday in Atlanta, Naughton came on at the end of an 11-inning marathon and earned the first save of his MLB career. At that time, Marmol labeled Naughton’s performance as “courageous” -- an adjective he bettered Tuesday.

“You can double-down on that word,” Marmol said of Naughton. “When we optioned him down to Triple-A [in June], he understood the move, but the one thing he said in my office was, ‘I know I can help this team win and I want a shot at it.’ He’s getting a shot and he’s proving he can do that. Those three outs were big, and this guy does not shy away from competition.”

His heart rate in check thanks to the breathing exercises he did on the mound with 37,150 fans looking on, Naughton calmly got Max Muncy and Hanser Alberto to fly out, and then he blew Bellinger away with his best fastball of the night.

“I actually debuted against the Dodgers last year, and we had a streaker run across the field,” said Naughton, a former Angel. “So, two outings against the Dodgers have been two pretty exciting nights.”