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May 07, 2023

Alec Burleson, Jack Flaherty play key roles as Cardinals get tight game to go their way

St. Louis Cardinals' Alec Burleson (41) gestures as he rounds third base on his

St. Louis Cardinals' Alec Burleson (41) gestures as he rounds third base on his home run against the Texas Rangers during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Arlington, Texas.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Cardinals rookie outfielder Alec Burleson didn't hesitate to wind up and exuberantly slap hands with third base coach Pop Warner as he round third on his way to the plate as the lone run scored in a nail-biter against the Texas Rangers.

Burleson didn't feel any discomfort in that moment, despite the palm of his right hand looking vaguely reminiscent of a paint by numbers collage.

Burleson had just delivered the decisive blow, a solo home run, which give the Cardinals a 1-0 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field in the finale of a three-game series. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Jack Flaherty repeatedly showed a knack for making the necessary pitches to escape potentially game-altering scenarios against the most potent offense in the majors.

The win stopped a five-game losing slide, stopped the Cardinals (26-37) from getting swept for the second consecutive series and saved them from going winless on an entire road trip for the first time this season.

A victory going into an off day also temporarily got a monkey of the Cardinals’ collective back after they’d lost the first five games of the trip by two runs or fewer, including three consecutive one-run games. They improved to 7-14 in one-run games.

"It's always good to win, I’m not going to downplay that," Burleson said. "I think we’ve played some good baseball here recently and we haven't come out on the good side of things. But it’ll be good to take that into (Thursday), rest up and take that momentum into this weekend on both sides of the ball."

A pair of small blisters/peeling gashes on Burleson's palm from sliding were the reason in recent days his paw had been wrapped so tightly it could pass for a mummy's hand underneath his batting glove.

The first gash came during the previous road trip in Cincinnati. It had healed somewhat over the past week but still gave his skin a gnarled appearance. He sustained the second cut during Tuesday night's game.

When probed about it by a reporter, the left-handed hitting Burleson admitted the two gashes have affected the way he has held his bat because they’re located right where his hand meets the knob of his bat. He's choked up slightly to accommodate that, but he insisted it hasn't changed his swing.

That swing lined up perfectly for Burleson and the Cardinals in the eighth inning against Rangers pitcher Jon Gray, who’d been having a near-dominant performance. Gray tossed a complete-game on 100 pitches. He struck out a season-high 12, allowed four hits and didn't walk a batter.

With two outs in the eighth, Gray's first-pitch slider dove down and in to Burleson. The pitch darted just below the strike zone, but Burleson reached down and got it. He clubbed the slider into the first row of the right field stands for his fifth home run of the season.

"I knew he’d been throwing strikes, and I knew how he’d been pitching me the past two at-bats," Burleson said. "I was on his fastball because his fastball was jumping today for a lot of guys. I think the slider just kind of went into my bat path and I was able to stay through it.

"So I wouldn't stay I was technically looking for it, but it was in the back of my mind, for sure."

Gray (6-2) entered the game having allowed just three earned runs in his previous five starts (34 innings), and he’d also won five consecutive starts. He’d come off of having pitched seven scoreless innings in his most recent start against the Seattle Mariners.

Burleson had gone just 1 for 14 on the road trip before that eighth-inning at-bat. In his previous 51 plate appearances entering the day, he’d gone 10 for 45 for a .222 batting average during that stretch. He’d walked nearly as many times (five) as he struck out (six) during that span, but last year's International League (Triple-A) batting champion wasn't getting the sort of results he’d come to expect from himself.

"Credit to the hitting coaches Turner Ward, Brandon Allen, Daniel (Nicolaisen), for making me stick to what I’m good at," Burleson said. "There's been some times when I’ve probably been a pain in their butts, wanting to change things. They have allowed me to.

"Obviously, there's things you can work on. ... But I have a base of who I am as a hitter, and trusting that (is important). You may not get the so-called stats that you want, but the results will come. As long as I’m putting myself in a good position to have success, it’ll come at some point."

Trusting the process and staying the course have been themes for the Cardinals as they’ve scuffled through a 5-10 stretch in their past 15 games. Six of those losses came in one-run games.

So flipping the script to earn a 1-0 win, their first of the season and the fifth in the past two seasons under manager Oliver Marmol allowed the Cardinals to exhale.

Asked about the feeling of seeing a tight game go in their favor, Marmol said, "There's a lot to that question. Because if you look at some of the losses that we’ve had, it has been somebody different each time, and you’re trying to piece together the bullpen in a way that creates identity. Tonight was a good example of a starter doing their job and three guys in a row just shutting the door."

The pitching performance started with Flaherty, who made his 13th start of the season. Flaherty pitched six scoreless innings, struck out eight, allowed three hits and maneuvered around five walks. He stranded eight men on base in six innings.

"When things heighten you’ve got to manage the game," Flaherty said. "You’ve got to figure out what you need to do to do that. So things get heightened a little bit when runners get on, but I kind of did that to myself by walking guys. I’ve got to do a better job of that."

Flaherty threw 29 first-inning pitches as he left the bases loaded. After he struck out the first batter, red-hot-hitting Marcus Semien, Flaherty walked three consecutive batters to start his outing.

Flaherty got Jonah Heim to swing over the top of a curveball for strike three to record the second out of the inning. Then Travis Jankowski smacked a 1-1 slider on the ground to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who tossed to Flaherty covering first for the final out of the inning.

While he worked around traffic most of the night — he retired the side in order in the fifth — he did not walk multiple batters in any other inning.

He stranded runners on second and third in the sixth inning after a two-out walk and a bloop double up the left field line by Robbie Grossman. He finished his outing with a strikeout, and turned it over to the bullpen.

Cardinals relievers Jordan Hicks, Giovanny Gallegos and Ryan Helsley (seventh save) pitched one scoreless inning apiece to close out the fifth shutout of the season for the pitching staff. Hicks recorded his first win since Aug. 4, 2022.

"Props to the bullpen," Flaherty said of pulling out the close win. "It hasn't always been easy. It hasn't always been pretty, but they did a really good job today of shutting it down right there."

In today's 10 a.m. "Ten Hochman" video — brought to you by Siteman Cancer Center and Window Nation — Ben Hochman discusses the infuriating at-bats of Willson Contreras, the Cardinals’ big free-agent signing who has a .654 OPS. Also, a happy birthday shoutout to Gary "U.S." Bonds! And as always, Hochman picks a random St. Louis Cards card from the hat!

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