Pallante Shuts Down Arizona as Cardinals Hold Off Late Surge

Tommy Troy launched a 444-foot bomb to center in the seventh to pull Arizona within one, but St. Louis held on for a 3-2 win on June 22. The Cardinals built their lead early and made it stick — even as the Diamondbacks refused to go quietly.

St. Louis did its damage fast and did it against a struggling Merrill Kelly. In the third, Alec Burleson reached on an infield single to second, scoring Nathan Church to make it 1-0. Kelly couldn't escape the fourth either — a sacrifice fly to center plated another run, and then Church singled to left to score Winn, pushing the Cardinals to a 3-0 lead. Three runs on seven hits in six innings against Kelly, who also issued three walks, tells the story: he simply didn't have command when it mattered most. The Diamondbacks' rotation has been battered by injuries this week, with Michael Soroka the latest arm to hit the injured list, and nights like this one from Kelly only deepen that concern.

Arizona clawed back, but never quite got there. Nolan Arenado grounded out to shortstop in the sixth — not a glamorous play, but it scored Corbin Carroll and put Arizona on the board at 1-3. Then came the moment that briefly made this interesting: Tommy Troy's 444-foot shot to center in the seventh cut it to 2-3 and swung the Cardinals' win probability from 88% to 78%. A 10-point swing on one swing of the bat. That's the kind of hit that empties a dugout — but it wasn't enough. St. Louis didn't flinch.

The story of the night, though, belongs to Andre Pallante. Six innings, six hits, one earned run, zero walks, two strikeouts — a clean, efficient outing that looks like exactly what a Cardinals staff needs from its starter. He handed a 3-1 lead to the bullpen and JoJo Romero closed out a scoreless inning of his own. On the Arizona side, Taylor Clarke was sharp in relief — 1.2 innings, no hits, no earned runs, two strikeouts — but that's a footnote when your team is already chasing. Church went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for St. Louis, and Carroll and Ketel Marte each went 2-for-4 for Arizona, but neither could push across the tying run when it counted. The Diamondbacks appear to be a team running out of margin for error, and a one-run loss in a game they trailed 3-0 is the kind of result that stings precisely because it felt winnable by the end.