Arenado's Two-Run Double Buries STL Early in 5-3 ARI Win
Arizona built a 5-0 lead before St. Louis recorded a single run, and the damage was done almost entirely in the first four innings. Nolan Arenado's two-run double in the third — the single biggest swing of the night — pushed Arizona's win probability from 79% to 91%, and St. Louis never got close enough to matter.
The story of the night was Dustin May's inability to strand runners. Arizona got on the board in the second when a McCann single to right scored Moreno and moved Arenado to third. Then the third inning turned into a full unraveling: May threw a wild pitch that scored Marte, and then Arenado stepped up and doubled to left, scoring both Kepler and Moreno to make it 4-0. That double is where the game effectively ended — the win probability swung from 79% to 91% on a single swing of the bat. May finished with 5.0 innings pitched, 8 hits, 5 earned runs, and 4 walks. The walks were the tell. Arizona didn't need to do anything extraordinary; May handed them baserunners and they cashed them in. Marte added a run-scoring single to left in the fourth to push it to 5-0, and that was all Brandon Pfaadt needed.
Pfaadt was efficient if not dominant — 5.1 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, no walks, 3 strikeouts. He didn't overpower St. Louis, but he didn't need to. Arizona's offense had already done the work. Arenado finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, Marte went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, and Gabriel Moreno crossed the plate twice while going 2-for-3. That's a clean, professional performance from the top of the Arizona lineup.
St. Louis mounted something resembling a comeback in the sixth — a Walker single to center scored Wetherholt, and then a Winn fielder's choice brought home Burleson to make it 5-2 — but it felt more like noise than a genuine threat. JJ Wetherholt went 2-for-5 and Alec Burleson went 2-for-4, so the Cardinals had contributors, just not enough of them at the right time. The lone highlight worth remembering from the St. Louis side was Jimmy Crooks, who launched a 443-foot solo shot to right center in the ninth to make it 5-3. It was a monster home run on a night that had nothing else to offer Cardinals fans. Gordon Graceffo and Kevin Ginkel both threw clean innings in relief — Graceffo with two strikeouts in one inning, Ginkel with one strikeout in one — but the game was long decided by then. Arizona wins 5-3, and it wasn't as close as the final score suggests.