An up and down night for the St. Louis Cardinals as they win their first interleague game of the season, 9-5, against the Los Angeles Angels, but it may have come at a price. Right after blasting a grand slam in the Cards five run third, Brad Penny left the game with what is being called a strained back muscle.
Even though the Cardinals have not been hitting well this week, the bats were hot from the first inning last night. In the first, Colby Rasmus put St. Louis up 2-0 after hitting a triple that scored Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols. But the Angels would answer that with four runs of their own in the second.
In the second, two more runs would score for the Cards, thanks to a Felipe Lopez triple and a single off the bat of Ryan Ludwick, tying the game at 4. The next inning, St. Louis would use the longball to pull away for good.
Brad Penny did the most damage of the night hitting a two out grand slam into the left field night. That would be followed by a Felipe Lopez home run. There was a bit of a delay after Lopez’s home run as the umpires used instant replay to make sure the ball left the yard.
In the top of the fourth, Penny went out to throw his warm up pitches, but right away there was something wrong. He would not finish his warm up pitches and would be replaced by Mitchell Boggs.
The Cardinal bullpen would clamp the door closed as Boggs, Jason Motte, Kyle McClellan and Dennys Reyes would throw the next six innings, giving up just one more run and that would come in the fourth.
The Redbirds have now won four of five after losing nine of 12. Game two of the series is this afternoon with Kyle Lohse looking for his second win of the season against LA’s Scott Kazmir.
First pitch is 1:15.
