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Cards’ rally in 9th bunches NL Wild Card race
- Updated: September 18, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Two outs away from falling into precarious position in the National League Wild Card standings, the Cardinals jumped on a wobbly San Francisco bullpen Saturday night to stun the Giants and tighten a three-way Wild Card race with a 3-2 victory at AT&T Park.
With their 16th final at-bat win of the season, the Cardinals moved to within two games of the Giants in the Wild Card race. And the Giants found themselves with unwanted company. The Mets, victorious in 13 innings Saturday, pulled into a first-place tie with San Francisco.
“This is playoff baseball already for us,” said Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who had the game-winning sacrifice fly. “We’re playing every single game like it’s our last, and we want to come in and win as much as we can. We know the Mets aren’t going to give it to us, and neither are these guys.”
Giants manager Bruce Bochy turned to Sergio Romo to open the ninth with a one-run lead. Bochy then swapped Romo for embattled closer Santiago Casilla after Jedd Gyorko’s one-out single. That’s when things fractured.
Casilla issued a walk before Randal Grichuk struck a two-strike pitch up the middle to plate the tying run. Wong then gave the Cardinals a lead that Seung Hwan Oh locked down with his second scoreless inning in relief. As for Casilla, he shouldered his ninth blown save, the most by a Giants reliever since Robb Nen in 1999.
“That’s a tough one,” said Bochy, whose club has blown a franchise-record 28 saves this season. “Samardzija threw great, we played well, that’s just tough luck there on that ground ball [from Grichuk]. It just got through.”
The Giants’ bullpen troubles cost starter Jeff Samardzija what would have been his first victory over the Cardinals since 2014. He allowed a first-inning home run to Brandon Moss, but otherwise held the Cardinals scoreless over the rest of his 6 2/3-inning outing.
Cardinals starter Mike Leake, back at AT&T Park for the first time since he pitched for …
