Jack Flaherty and four St. Louis relievers combined on an unconventional three-hitter as the Cardinals defeated the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 on Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals issued 10 walks, hit a batter and threw a run-producing wild pitch, but the Blue Jays stranded 12 runners and went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Flaherty (1-0) walked seven batters and hit another but did not allow a hit in five shutout innings. Drew VerHagen and Andre Pallante followed with scoreless innings, then Ryan Helsley bailed Jordan Hicks out of an eighth-inning jam and continued on for his first save.
Nolan Gorman drove in two runs for the Cardinals and Jordan Walker had two hits and drove in one.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman (0-1) struck out seven and walked one in six innings. He allowed three unearned runs on eight hits.
Flaherty issued two-out walks to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Daulton Varsho and Matt Chapman in the first inning, then struck out Brandon Belt to escape unharmed.
In the second inning, Flaherty walked Danny Jansen and hit Cavan Biggio before again escaping trouble. Flaherty walked Bo Bichette and Guerrero to start the third inning before retiring the next three batters.
The Cardinals broke ahead 3-0 in their half of the third. Brendan Donovan hit a one-out single and raced to third on Paul Goldschmidt’s two-out single.
Chapman’s throwing error on Nolan Arenado’s grounder allowed Donovan to score, then Gorman poked a two-run single down the third-base line.
Gorman started the sixth inning by walking and taking third on Tyler O’Neill’s single. But Biggio threw out Gorman coming home on Walker’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Kevin Kiermaier broke up the no-hitter with a seventh-inning single, but Pallante closed out the inning without further incident.
Hicks walked Guerrero and Varsho to start the eighth inning and Guerrero scored on a one-out wild pitch. After Hicks walked Belt, Helsley came on to get two groundouts.
The Cardinals made it 4-1 in the eighth inning on Walker’s RBI infield single.
Helsley allowed singles by Kiermaier and Bichette in the ninth inning before closing out the victory.
–Field Level Media
