Luke Weaver seemed to regain his old form. It just took a while.
He settled in after a shaky first inning to win for the first time in eight starts and Jose Martinez hit a three-run homer to pace the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
”I think it means a lot for him to right the ship,” Matheny said. ”The first inning, you could tell. It was once again, like, `Here we go.’ Got into the second, that was better. Gave up a walk and at that point he turned it around.”
Martinez’s 11th homer capped a five-run fourth when St. Louis erased a 2-1 deficit. Dexter Fowler, who entered hitting .163, doubled twice and scored twice, and Harrison Bader reached four times, scoring twice for the Cardinals, who won the final two games of the series to salvage a split.
Fowler snapped an 0-for13 streak with a double to open the fourth and Bader walked. Both runners advanced on Kelton Wong’s fly out to right. After Weaver struck out, Matt Carpenter lined a two-run single to center to put the Cards up 3-2.
Jhoulys Chacin (6-3) issued his fifth walk to Greg Garcia and Martinez then drove an 0-2 pitch over the wall in center to make it 6-2.
”That pitch ran into my bat 100 percent,” Martinez said. ”He actually caught me off-guard Jordan Scarlett Jersey , got my off my timing. I just reacted to the ball. I got the barrel 100 percent. It was good for me that it actually happened like that. It was a good hit for us in that inning.”
The Cardinals extended it to 8-2 in the fifth. Fowler again led off with a double and Bader followed with an RBI single. Wong singled Bader to third and Weaver laid down an RBI sacrifice bunt.
Chacin allowed a season-high eight runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, striking out five and walking five. Chacin dropped to 0-7 with a 6.90 ERA in nine career appearances, including eight starts, against the Cardinals.
”When you walk five guys in four innings, you can’t have much of a good game,” Chacin said. ”Just trying to battle from the first inning. I got runners on base every inning. Just battling with control with my pitches. You pay for it.”
The Cardinals pushed across a run in the first when Carpenter walked, Garcia doubled and Marcell Ozuna lofted a one-out sacrifice fly to the wall in right-center.
Milwaukee answered with two runs in the bottom half. Christian Yelich tied it with his 10th home run, a one-out solo shot into the second deck in left. Ryan Braun followed with a double to right and scored on Hernan Perez’s two-out single. Jonathan Villar doubled Perez to third, but Weaver escaped by retiring Erik Kratz on a hard-hit liner to right.
”Being able to get out of that inning with just two runs, it’s obviously not ideal, but the way we’ve kind of been swinging and getting hot, I knew we were going to score some runs,” Weaver said. ”It was just about putting up zeroes from there.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cards: OF Tommy Pham was not in the lineup after feeling ill before the game. ”He is just under the weather,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”It has been going through our clubhouse. Different guys are passing it around. Unfortunately when you spend this much time together David Montgomery Jersey , is this kind of space, on flights, it is going to run its course.”
Brewers: 3B Travis Shaw left in the third inning after re-aggravating his sore right wrist on the second swing of his at-bat. The extent of the injury was not known, Counsell said. . RHP Matt Albers (10-day DL, right shoulder discomfort), could start a throwing program next week, but his return is still a ways off. ”I think we’re looking post-All Star break for Matt,” Counsell said. . IF Nick Franklin (10-day DL, right quad strain) is in Arizona and still experience soreness. ”He’s not over the injury,” Counsell said. . IF Tyler Saladino (10-day DL, left ankle sprain) continues to progress. ”We’re closing in on looking at setting a date to send him out on rehab.”
UP NEXT
Cards: RHP John Gant (1-2, 4.39) opens the three-game series at home against Cleveland on Monday. Gant, filling in for injured Michael Wacha, was sent down to Triple-A Memphis on May 31 and recalled on Thursday.
Brewers: After an off-day Monday http://www.bearsfootballauthentics.com/riley-ridley-jersey-authentic , rookie RHP Freddy Peralta (2-0, 2.30) makes his fourth start of the season to open a two-game series at home against Kansas City. Opponents are batting just .113 against him.
The future is back.
Twenty years ago, Ken Griffey Jr. and the Seattle Mariners‘ marketing department put on one of the most memorable promotions in franchise history — which is saying a lot, since Funny Nose Glasses Night in 1982 drew more fans than Gaylord Perry’s 300th win two nights earlier — with Turn Ahead the Clock Day.
Instead of wearing retro uniforms like most teams do for Turn Back the Clock Day, the Mariners imagined what things might look like in 2027, when they will celebrate their 50th anniversary.
The Kingdome was turned into the “Biodome.” A DeLorean drove actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on “Star Trek,” to the mound to deliver the ceremonial first pitch.
The Mariners’ Moose mascot was replaced by Marty the Mariners Martian. Griffey was referred to as “Digit 24” instead of his last name by the public-address announcer.
Player positions were called quadrants. And the Mariners and their opponent that night, the Kansas City Royals, wore futuristic, untucked uniforms that Griffey, the Hall of Fame center fielder, helped design.
According to Kevin Martinez, the marketing director for the Mariners in 1998 Shareef Miller Jersey , it was Griffey’s idea to change the Mariners’ colors from navy, teal and white to crimson, black and silver. Junior wore his hat backward and spray-painted his glove and spikes silver.
“There were always some surprises,” Griffey recently told The Athletic. “You never knew what was going to happen that night. It was like, ‘Stay tuned.'”
Twenty years later, the Mariners and Royals will reprise Turn Ahead the Clock Night when they meet Saturday night at Safeco Field.
Royals outfielder Jorge Bonifacio is certainly looking to the future after making his season debut in Friday night’s 4-1 loss to the Mariners.
Bonifacio missed the first 80 games of the season while serving a Major League Baseball suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in spring training.
“I’m so excited to be back with the team,” said Bonifacio, who batted .255 and hit 17 home runs as a rookie last season.
Bonifacio batted .392 in 13 games for Triple-A Omaha before being activated. He batted fifth Friday, going 0-for-3.
“We’re glad to have him back,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He was swinging very well (at Omaha).
“I mean, the kid hit 17 homers last year. … Yeah, he was going to hit in the middle of the order, until all this surfaced.”
Bonifacio played left field Friday to give Alex Gordon a day off, but likely will be in right field Saturday.
On the mound, right-handers Jason Hammel of the Royals (2-9, 5.34 ERA) and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (7-6, 5.10) will be looking for vintage performances.
Hammel, who won 15 games for the World Series champion Chicago Cubs in 2016, has lost four straight starts — in which the Royals have scored a total of five runs. The graduate of South Kitsap High School in nearby Port Orchard, Wash., is 3-3 with a 3.53 ERA in eight career appearances against Seattle, including seven starts.
Hernandez, the American League’s 2010 Cy Young Award winner, is 6-6 with a 3.15 ERA in 15 career starts against the Royals. That includes an 8-3 victory on April 10 in Kansas City in which he pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and six hits.