Stop what you’re doing, and tuck in that napkin St. Louis, because this team is cooking up something special
Saturday night at Busch? It felt like playoff baseball in June—tight, tactical, and full of those “wait, did that just happen?” moments as Nolan Arenado stepped into the batters box that make this game the beautiful, agonizing chess match we all love. And once again, the Cardinals took down the mighty Dodgers. Yes, those Dodgers—the offensive juggernaut that leads the league in scoring, bombs, and batting average—got locked down for the second night in a row.
And who came through in the clutch? None other than Nolan Arenado. Off the bench. Cold. Bottom of the ninth.
Let’s walk back a bit before Nolan Arenado Wins it
Nolan Gorman kicks off the frame with a ground-rule double. Momentum? Shifted. He gets a runner to replace him. Then Pedro Pagés reaches on an error that made Dodgers pitcher Ben Casparius look like he forgot what planet he was on. Thus, with pressure mounting and two on, the Dodgers pulled one of those high-risk stunts: five infielders, nobody in left field.
And wouldn’t you know it, Arenado’s lazy little opposite-field floater—more of a shrug than a swing—plops down fair, takes a bounce into the crowd, and just like that, it’s a ground-rule double and the Cards walk it off again.
Cue the fireworks. Cue the critics shutting up. That’s back-to-back thrillers against the best lineup in baseball.
But this Game wasn’t just one at-bat for Nolan Arenado or even just one Inning
This was a full-on team lockdown. Masyn Winn gave St. Louis the edge with a mad dash home on an Alec Burleson infield single in the eighth. Erick Fedde, working the edges all night, gave you over five innings of scoreless baseball despite four walks. Steven Matz, the unsung hero again, worked out of a sixth-inning jam and then—in what may be the key moment of the game—got drilled on the arm by a Mookie Betts rocket and still stayed in to coax a double-play grounder out of Freddie Freeman. That’s ice in your veins.
Yeah, Ryan Helsley blew another save in the ninth, but guess what? The team didn’t flinch. They came back swinging indeed, and they closed it out.
Let’s talk stats
The Dodgers hadn’t been shut out in back-to-back games since 2018. And this Cards pitching staff—led by Fedde and Matz—just made it happen. That’s not luck, folks. That’s execution. That is the epitome of grit. That’s something we haven’t seen in a minute.
Up Next for the Cardinals
St. Louis hands the ball to rookie righty Michael McGreevy on Sunday. He’s got a 0.00 ERA and already showed he can go toe-to-toe with big league bats. Who’s he facing? Just future first ballot hall-of-famer Clayton Kershaw.
But here’s the thing: if this series has shown us anything, it’s that the Cardinals are no longer just riding out a rebuilding season. They’re swinging for respect. They’re battling with swagger. Further, they are hurling with focused rage. And if you’re not watching this team tighten the screws and flip the script in real-time, then you’re missing the best show in baseball right now.
