Brendan Ryan and Adam Wainwright celebrate at home plate in the ninth inning. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
It just didn’t look like it was going to be the Cardinals night until the ninth inning. Nothing was going their way after they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but somehow the Cardinals managed a 6-5 win Monday night at Busch Stadium where Adam Wainwright scored the winning run.
Arizona first basemen Adam LaRoche made a low throw to home on a soft grounder hit by Skip Schumaker. Brendan Ryan slid in to score the tying run and when the ball bounced away from the catcher, Adam Wainwright came around from second to score the winning run.
Wainwright says he’s never scored a game winner before
Wainwright set up the first run in the bottom of the ninth when he laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded relief pitcher Aaron Heilman. His throw to third was wild allowing pinch runner Jaime Garcia to score.
St. Louis scored three in the ninth to win off two errors after letting a golden opportunity slip by in the eighth. Arizona went up 6-2 in that inning when a fly ball by Mark Reynolds bounced out of the glove of Randy Winn and over the wall for a homer.
In the bottom of the eighth, Haren gave up three straight hits, but he struck out Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday before getting Colby Rasmus to fly out allowing Haren to escape with just one run allowed.
Of the Cardinals six runs scored in the game, only three of them were earned.
