By MATT PIKE
The St. Louis Cardinals have held their own against aces so far this season, handing the Pirates Paul Skenes a couple of losses, and also knocking off the likes of the Twins' Pablo López and the Astros' Framber Valdez.
They had an opportunity to add dd two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom to the list Sunday afternoon, but despite a solid start from Erick Fedde, they fell short in an 8-1 loss to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. It had little to do with Fedde though, who delivered his first quality start since posting a shutout at Washington on May 9. Fedde allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts over six innings, exiting with the Cardinals trailing just 2-1.
St. Louis did take the lead early on in the game, scoring their lone run in the first inning as Willson Contreras singled home Lars Nootbaar who had walked to open the game against deGrom. The second inning is the only time Fedde couldn’t work his way out of trouble. Fedde retired the first two batters before giving up a single to Marcus Semien on a 2-0 cutter. Fedde issued a five-pitch walk to Sam Haggerty, the Rangers’ nine-hole batter, and then gave up a two-run double to Josh Smith making the Cardinals' early 1-0 lead a short-lived one.
Wyatt Langford's sacrifice fly off of reliever Kyle Leahy in the seventh inning extended the Rangers lead, driving in Semien. Texas added their final five runs in the eighth inning, the first coming on an RBI double by Jake Burger, scoring Josh Jung, before later in the inning Jonah Heim's sacrifice fly brought home Alejandro Osuna. Haggerty's sacrifice bunt continued the scoring run, allowing Burger to score, and Smith capped the scoring with a two run home run in the inning, for his third and fourth RBI's of the day.
Despite the quality start, Fedde did take the loss, falling to 3-5 on the season. At the plate, the Cardinals managed just five total hits, with five St. Louis players each getting one hit.
St. Louis is off tomorrow, and will host Kansas City on Tuesday. Andre Pallante (4-3, 4.23 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Cardinals while Michael Lorenzen (3-6, 4.33 ERA) is set to start for the Royals in the series opener. First pitch is at 6:45 pm. Cardinals pregame coverage will be joined at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM) while Royals pregame coverage will begin at 6pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.