By Rick Hummel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
DETROIT — This interleague thing with the Detroit Tigers, especially in Detroit, isn’t working out all that well for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals won more games (three) against the Tigers at Navin Field in the 1934 World Series than they have won (two) in five different seasons of interleague competition at Comerica Park.
Detroit hiked its interleague edge in this spacious yard to 11-2 over the Cardinals with a 6-3 win Tuesday night in what purported to be a heavyweight pitching matchup between Detroit’s Justin Verlander, the reigning American League most valuable player and Cy Young Award winner, and the Cardinals’ Lance Lynn, the new tough kid on the block.
But Lynn had one of his rare off games of the season, giving up five runs in five innings as the Cardinals fell into a hole they found too deep to escape.
Verlander wasn’t unhittable, although he had struck out 10 or more hitters in six of his previous interleague starts against National League teams.
In fact, Verlander walked four on Tuesday, or one more than he struck out. But he gave up only one earned run through six innings before an error by Detroit left fielder Quintin Berry gave the Cardinals two runs—and a chance in the seventh.
Verlander, throwing three pitches over 100 miles an hour to Allen Craig, after throwing 91 to 95 most of the game, ended his night by fanning Craig on his 108th pitch, to leave the bases loaded in that inning. Then again, he is an astounding 18-2 in interleague play, amassing more wins than any pitcher in interleague competition since 2006.
“It’s pretty standard with him,” said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “He cruises early with plenty of good stuff and turns it up a notch when he has to.”
The loss left the Cardinals at the .500 level (34-34) for the fourth time this season. It also left Lynn at 10-3 after a taxing 102-pitch outing over five innings.
Matheny thought Lynn labored all night. “He looked a little bogged down from the beginning,” said Matheny. “That really isn’t how he’s pitched all year, but young pitchers are going to have those days.”
Lynn, agreeing with his manager, said, “Against a team like this, if you’re behind in the count all night, they’re going to hurt you. I’ve got to be better than that, especially with who they had going for them.
“You’ve got to come with your ‘A’ game if you plan on having any success against this team. And tonight I didn’t have it. I wasn’t sharp and they made me pay for it.”
Matheny thought Lynn’s fastball was his undoing as it often sailed out of the strike zone. “I was kind of feeling through it and I left some pitches up,” Lynn said. “In the outings where I’ve been less successful, I’ve been behind in counts and that’s going to hurt you, no matter who you are. I wasn’t able to make that one pitch to get me out of an inning.”
After Verlander pitched around Matt Holliday’s two-out double in the Cardinals’ first, Lynn allowed a two-out double by Miguel Cabrera in the Tigers’ first.
The Cardinals pitched around dangerous Prince Fielder, issuing a walk. But Delmon Young singled to left, scoring Cabrera. Fielder, challenging the Cardinals to cut the ball off, steamed around second and headed to third. Third baseman David Freese did cut off Craig’s throw and ran down Fielder himself. But it still was 1-0, Detroit, which often is enough for Verlander.
The Tigers got him three more in the second, which featured a bunt play the Cardinals didn’t make on defense.
Brennan Boesch and Jhonny Peralta both singled before Ramon Santiago squared to sacrifice. Freese had been playing in for the bunt but backtracked to the bag when he saw Lynn move to make a play on the ball.
The only problem was that by the time Lynn gloved the ball while running toward third, Boesch already was there and all three runners were safe.
The bases still were loaded after Gerald Laird fouled to Yadier Molina. But Austin Jackson doubled in two runs and Santiago, who probably shouldn’t have been on base, came home on Berry’s groundout.
Lynn said, “(Santiago) put it right in between us. When it first came off the bat, it looked like it was going to be a pretty easy play, and then it kind of skipped forward.”
Matheny, not criticizing either defender, said, “There’s a lot that goes into it. From (Freese’s) vantage point, what he saw was that it was going to be a play that Lance was going to get to. It’s usually a result of guys working together and realizing what kind of lateral movement a pitcher has and which guy aggressively wants to go after a ball as a pitcher. That’s not a black-and-white play. It’s not a play where you say, ‘(Freese) has got to make that play.—
With the bases loaded, Jackson, said Lynn, hit a ball that wasn’t a strike. “There’s about five pitches a game you’d like back and I’d like that one back right now,” Lynn said.
After falling behind 5-0, the Cardinals finally broke through in the sixth, with Daniel Descalso, who had two hits from the No. 9 spot, singling and scoring on a groundout by Holliday.
The Tigers got that run back in the sixth and, in the Cardinals’ seventh, Freese and Rafael Furcal both walked and Descalso singled. With the bases loaded, Carlos Beltran hit a liner slicing away from Berry, who ran down the ball but then couldn’t hold on, as Freese and Descalso scored.
Then, with many in the paid crowd of 36,733 standing and howling, Verlander (7-4) made his final pitch, a 2-2 curveball, a game-saver by striking out Craig.
“It was fun to be a part of, to have him come at me like that,” said Craig, facing Verlander for the first time. “I was on the first fastball. I just missed it. I took that curveball (to make the count 2-2) pretty well. And then he just threw me a better curveball. He beat me on that one.”
