After our esteemed Outside Corner team took a long look this afternoon at two late-charging entries into this season’s wild card races, the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals both found themselves in position to make even more headway in their improbable playoff runs. Only one team succeeded, though, while the other was left with a disappointing and potentially crippling loss.
With the Red Sox not playing on Monday, the Rays knew that all they had to do was beat the Orioles to move to within three games of Boston in the AL wild card standings. Coming off of a sweep of the Sox last weekend with a four-game set in Boston looming this weekend, three games back isn’t aninsurmountable deficit for Tampa Bay, even if it’s not an ideal place to be this late in the season. They got exactly what they needed tonight, as Jeff Niemann threw 7 2/3 strong innings and Ben Zobrist keyed a three-run second inning with a two-run double as the Rays cruised to a 5-2 win over the Orioles. They’ve now made up six full games on the Red Sox since August 30th, winning five in a row and nine of 12.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, entered the night 4 1/2 games back of the Braves in the NL wild card. They squandered a golden opportunity to make up a game tonight, though, as they dropped a game in Pittsburgh to the sleep-walking Pirates. The Pirates scored just five times over the weekend in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins, but they dinged the Cardinals’ staff for six runs last night. That includes a three-run eighth inning that turned a 4-3 Cardinal lead into a 6-4 lead for the Buccos. The key hit of the inning was a double by little-used utility infielder Pedro Ciriaco that scored two runs, the second of which was Ryan Ludwick who was intentionally walked by Tony La Russa despite his subpar 2011 at the plate. That turned out to be the winning run, too, after the Cardinals scored once in the ninth.
The sting of the loss was somewhat mitigated for the redbirds when the Braves dropped a 12-inning contest against the Marlins, but the Cardinals will wake up today knowing that if they’d held a lead against the worst team in the National League since the All-Star break on Monday night, they’d be a game closer to a playoff spot. With just 15 games left and none against the team they’re chasing, games are a valuable commodity for the Cards and they squandered one on Monday night.
Other games from last night: The Tigers won their 10th straight by clobbering the White Sox 14-4. The Cubs and Reds played a meaningless game in Cincinnati that featured some absolutely mammoth home runs, including a 500+ foot shot by Juan Francisco and the first of catching prospect Devin Mesoraco’s career. The Cubs hit some bombs of their own, though (Jeff Baker, Starlin Castro, and Aramis Ramirez all went yard) and pulled out the entertaining 12-8 win. The Angels lost a chance to pull within two games of the idle Rangers when they lost to the A’s 6-3. All of last night’s results are here.
Tonight’s games: There are six games with real playoff implications tonight. The Rays are Orioles are back at it in Baltimore with David Price and Alfredo Simon on the mound, while the Red Sox open up a two-game set with the Blue Jays in Toronto. Tim Wakefield continues to search for his 200th career win against Brandon Morrow. On the NL side, the Cardinals will send Chris Carpenter out against Jeff Karstens, who hasn’t pitched for the Pirates since being lit up by the Cards on July 28th, ostensibly due to fatigue. The Braves will continue their series in Miami with Mike Minor taking the hill against Brad Hand. In the two important AL West matchups, the Rangers host the Indians with Matt Harrison and Justin Masterson on the mound, while the Angels keep going against the A’s with Jerome Williams and Guillermo Moscoso on the mound. Tonight’s full schedule is here.
