By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley gave up two runs in the ninth inning, blowing his second save of the season, but Nolan Arenado blasted a walk off home run in the bottom half as the Cardinals topped their NL Central rivals the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 at Busch Stadium Saturday afternoon.
It didn't appear early on however like St Louis would need to win that way though, building a 5-0 lead early on through the first four innings. The first run in the second inning started with a Nolan Gorman double leading off the inning, and after Thomas Saggese grounded out advancing Norman to third, Pedro Pagés hit a sacrifice fly to center field driving in Gorman to open the scoring.
In the third inning, Masyn Winn led off with a double and was followed up by a ground rule double by Lars Nootbaar, allowing Winn to run across home plate. Willson Contreras grounded out advancing Nootbaar to third base, and Brendan Donovan hit the third double of the inning to score Nootbaar to build the Redbirds lead to 3-0. Arenado grounded out to advance Donovan to third, and the bases ended up loaded after back to back walks to Gorman and Saggese, but Pagés grounded out to end the inning.
The Cardinals added the the final two runs, prior to the walk off home run, in the fourth inning. Winn hit his second double of the game after Victor Scott II flew out to open the inning. Nootbaar's single drove in Winn to extend the lead, and Nootbaar came around to score in the next at bat thanks to a throwing error by Brice Turang on a single from Contreras.
Milwaukee began their comeback in the fifth inning after back to back doubles by Joey Ortiz and Caleb Durbin opened the scoring for the Brewers. Durbin would get picked off by Cardinals starter Sonny Gray, but after Turang walked, he found his way home on another double in the inning, this time by Jackson Chourio.
The Brewers added another run in the sixth after loading the bases. William Contreras and Rhys Hoskins singled before Gray walked Jake Bauers. Contreras scored on a groundout by Joey Ortiz, Bauers being forced out at second and Ortiz reaching first safely. With runners on the corners and two outs, Vinny Capra flied out to right field ending the inning with Milwaukee trailing 5-3.
Leading by two runs in the top of the ninth, the Cardinals called on the ever reliable closer Helsley. But disaster struck quickly for Helsley, who gave up a leadoff single to Isaac Collins. Helsley retired Turang on a flyout to center field, but while facing down Chourio, Helsey gave up the sixth home run of the season to the right fielder, tying up the game. He bounced back following the blast, forcing Christain Yelich to ground out and Contreras to pop out to the catcher.
Donovan lined out sharply to center field against new Brewers reliever Trevor Megill to start the bottom of the ninth, but down 0-1 at the plate, Arenado came up clutch blasting the walk off home run 385 feet to left field to give St. Louis back to back wins for the first time since last week, April 13th and 14th.
Helsley earned the win, despite the blown save, moving to 1-0 on the year, giving up two runs on two hits in one inning. Nootbaar (2-4, 2 RBI), Contreras (2-5), Donovan (2-5, 1 RBI), and Winn (2-4, 2 runs, 2 doubles) led the way hitting for the Cardinals.
St. Louis and Houston wrap up their series tomorrow, before the Cardinals hit the road on Monday to Cincinatti. Erick Fedde (1-2, 3.33 ERA) starts the series finale for the Cardinals against Jose Quintana (3-0, 0.96 ERA) for the Brewers. First pitch is at 1:15pm, pregame coverage will be joined at 1:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.