Cardinals Bullpen Blows Leahy’s Gem in 3-1 Loss to Blue Jays

Kyle Leahy handed the St. Louis bullpen a 1-0 lead and six innings of work. It lasted five outs.

The Blue Jays beat the Cardinals 3-1 at Rogers Centre on Friday night, and the box score is unusually specific about where it went wrong. Toronto’s two go-ahead runs scored on a pinch-hit single. Both runners were walks issued by Peter Strzelecki.

What happened in the eighth

Justin Bruihl gave up two singles to open the inning. Strzelecki relieved him with runners on second and third and one out, and immediately hit Myles Straw to load the bases.

Then he got out of it. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, Masyn Winn to JJ Wetherholt to Alec Burleson, and the inning ended without a run.

He came back out and walked George Springer. Then he walked Daulton Varsho. Gordon Graceffo replaced him, walked Ernie Clement to load the bases, and Luis Urías singled to left. Both of Strzelecki’s runners scored.

Strzelecki’s line: one inning, no hits, two runs, two walks, one hit batter, and the loss. He threw 17 pitches and six were strikes.

The AP archive has a genre for this

The hit batter was not an aberration. Strzelecki has plunked 10 hitters in 85.2 career innings, roughly double the league rate, and wire photographers have been there for a striking number of them.

Arozarena and Raley were the same inning of the same game.

Five organizations in five years

Strzelecki debuted with Milwaukee on June 2, 2022, the 22,620th player in major league history, and threw two scoreless innings against San Diego for the win. He had a 2.83 ERA in 30 games as a rookie.

It has been the eighth inning ever since, with the outcomes that come with it.

Milwaukee traded him to Arizona at the 2023 deadline for Andrew Chafin. He pitched one inning for the Diamondbacks.

Cleveland came next, then Pittsburgh, then Milwaukee again this spring, then St. Louis. The Cardinals selected his contract on July 28 and optioned Hunter Dobbins to Memphis to make room.

Leahy deserved better

Leahy went six innings on 98 pitches, allowing one earned run on six hits with three strikeouts, and left with the lead. He held Toronto scoreless into the sixth, when Guerrero doubled and Kazuma Okamoto doubled him in.

He was outdueling Dylan Cease, who struck out seven over six innings. The only Cardinals run came in the fifth, and it was not hit hard. Cease got a called strike past Jordan Walker with a 97.8 mph four-seamer, and Walker let him hear about it. Then Cease came back at the same velocity with a sinker, and Walker flicked it 271 feet at 79.7 mph off the bat — a soft fly that dropped in front of Daulton Varsho to score Nathan Church. Win probability swung 13.8 percent on a ball hit under 80.

Leahy leaves with no decision and a 3.44 ERA.

The infield kept it close

St. Louis turned three double plays, all through the middle. Winn to Wetherholt to Burleson in the second on Ernie Clement. The same trio in the seventh on Guerrero, the one that bailed out Strzelecki. Then Wetherholt to Winn to Burleson in the eighth on Brandon Valenzuela to end the frame.

Wetherholt and Winn were on both ends of every pivot. Without them the margin is worse.

The Cardinals could not hit with anyone on

St. Louis went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven on. Burleson, Wetherholt, Winn and José Fermín all stranded runners with two outs. Church had two of the five hits and a stolen base. Iván Herrera went 0-for-4. Louis Varland closed it for his 24th save.

Quinn Mathews debuts Saturday

Saturday afternoon in the same building, the Cardinals hand the ball to Quinn Mathews.

The left-hander, the Cardinals’ No. 7 prospect, makes his major league debut at 3:07 p.m. ET against Toronto. He posted a 1.04 ERA over four July starts at Triple-A Memphis and worked six or more innings in each of his last four outings. A 2023 fourth-round pick out of Stanford, he became the first minor league pitcher in more than two decades to strike out 200 batters in a season for the Cardinals, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis fell to 54-55. Dustin May remains in every deadline rumor with Monday three days out.