St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael Wacha snags a linedrive off the bat of San Francisco Giants Gregor Blanco in the fifth inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on August 17, 2015. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Stephen Piscotty tripled and scored the go-ahead run on Mark Reynolds’ groundout in the eighth and that run proved the difference as the Cardinals won for the 15th time this year in their final at-bat, a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants, Monday night at Busch Stadium.
Brandon Crawford fielded Reynolds’ grounder and ran to second for a forceout after struggling to get a firm grip and then spun and threw wide to first, missing a chance at a double play. The only other scoring came when Yadier Molina hit his third homer off starter Chris Heston leading off the fourth and the Giants tied it on Crawford’s two-out RBI triple in the sixth.
Kevin Siegrist pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Trevor Rosenthal picked up his 37th save. Rosenthal tied Pittsburgh’s Mark Melancon for the National League lead.
The Cardinals have won Wacha’s last four starts including Monday night’s win in large part to his ability to shut down the opposing team’s order. Last night, Wacha allowed six hits over seven innings while walking one and striking out six. In his last four starts, Wacha has pitched 27 innings, allowing three earned runs and 26 strikeouts. His ERA over this stretch is 1.00 since July 31st.