Arenado's 384-Foot Bomb Ignites Arizona's Seven-Run Comeback

Arizona trailed 7-0 through four innings and still won 8-7, completing one of the more stunning reversals of the summer. Nolan Arenado's two-run homer to left center in the eighth — 384 feet, win probability swinging from 12% to 55% — was the gut punch that turned the whole thing.

St. Louis looked like it was sleepwalking to a blowout win. Blaze Jordan tripled to left in the third to score Nootbaar, then scored himself on a Wetherholt single. Walker doubled to push it to 3-0, and Burleson's single to center plated two more to make it 5-0 — all in the same inning. Jordan came back in the fifth with a single to right that scored Burleson and Fermín, and suddenly it was 7-0 Cardinals. Philip Abner lasted just two innings for Arizona, and the game appeared to be over before the sixth.

Then Arizona started chipping. A Marte single scored Del Castillo in the sixth, a walk scored Waldschmidt, another walk scored Marte — three runs on two hits and two free passes, the kind of inning that looks ugly in a box score and feels worse in the dugout. Geraldo Perdomo then homered to left in the seventh, a 242-foot shot that scored Del Castillo and made it 7-5. The Cardinals' seven-run cushion had shrunk to two in the span of two innings, and the bullpen was clearly not holding the line.

The moment that sealed it came in the eighth: Arenado drove a 384-foot homer to left center, scoring Locklear and tying the game at 7. The win probability swung from 12% to 55% on a single swing — that's the entire game distilled into one at-bat. Arizona then pushed it to extras, and in the tenth, Kepler doubled to right to score Barrosa for the 8-7 final. The story of the night was a Cardinals offense that did everything right for five innings and a bullpen that handed it all back. Arenado and Perdomo each went 1-for-4 with a homer and 2 RBI; Burleson and Jordan combined for six hits, five RBI, and two runs for St. Louis. It wasn't enough. Arizona took it in ten.