OAKLAND, Calif. — With a chance to close out their limited history at the Oakland Coliseum with a winning record and something they’ve been chasing in the present, the Cardinals let a lead slip from them in the middle of the game.

The Athletics bullpen assured they did little about it late in the game.

In what is likely the Cardinals’ final game ever at the Coliseum before the Athletics uproot and head ... somewhere ... the Cardinals misplaced a lead during the fifth inning and lost, 6-3, on Wednesday afternoon. For the Cardinals, it was another missed chance to sweep a series, and they fell to 0-6 this season in the final game of a series. They are now two shy of the team record for losing the final game of a series to open a season, a record that was set in 1898, a few years before they became the Cardinals.

With a win Wednesday, the Cardinals would have also left the spacious Coliseum with an all-time winning record of 6-5. It was on the precipice of .500 Wednesday.

The A’s can leave Oakland with a winning record against St. Louis.

Oakland closer Mason Miller hit 102 mph with the final pitch of the game to conclude his fourth save of the season with a strikeout. Oakland flipped the game in the decisive fifth inning against Cardinals starter Steven Matz. The Cardinals finished 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position, but it was Oakland using productive outs for a three-run rally and a bullpen fiercely holding that lead that decided the game.

Lefty Matz (1-1) allowed a two-run homer in third inning to Esteury Ruiz but had the lead going into the fifth inning. Three consecutive hits and a three-run burst in the fifth flipped the game on him. He allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks. In the inning he needed a strikeout to take advantage of a fortuitous ground-rule double — if there is such a thing — he did not get one of his four whiffs.

Cardinals 1st to crack Blackburn

Oakland right-hander Paul Blackburn (2-0) brought a spotless 0.00 ERA into his fourth start of the season, and it appeared the Cardinals had a clear shot at bruising it before he got an out Wednesday. The first two batters in the top of the first inning reached base. Blackburn regained control of the inning when he got Lars Nootbaar to ground into a double play — one that was challenged by the Cardinals and confirmed by officials in New York.

That left the Cardinals without two runners on base and without their challenge coming out of the first inning.

Blackburn’s ERA escaped unchanged.

That was not the case in the fourth inning. More than 22 innings into his season, Blackburn allowed his first runs of the season when three consecutive Cardinals connected for base hits. Nootbaar stung a single to right. He took off for second as Nolan Arenado did the same. The first two doubles from Willson Contreras scored Nootbaar, and then Ivan Herrera claimed a lead for the Cardinals with his two-run single up the middle. Contreras scored the run on his fellow catcher’s hit for a 3-2 lead.

McFarland keeps Cardinals grounded

In the sixth inning, Contreras led off with his second double of the game for his second two-double game of the series. That gave the Cardinals a quick chance to respond with a rally. It faltered on two ground balls before the A’s ever went to their ground-ball specialist.

Contreras took third on a ground-out, and when Herrera followed with another ground ball to shortstop, his fellow catcher did not break for home on contact.

He didn’t go when the shortstop flung the ball to first.

A run that would have cut the Athletics’ lead in half instead remained at third base. That helped Oakland make the call to pitch around Masyn Winn and get lefty and ground-ball-getter T.J. McFarland into the game. The Cardinals had a counter for their former lefty reliever — though the trends lined up for the A’s. The Cardinals pinch-hit Jordan Walker for Michael Siani. That gave them the right-handed bat against McFarland’s left-handed delivery, but Oakland benefited from getting one of the best ground-ball relievers against one of the hitters with the highest ground-ball rate.

Walker drilled a ground ball to third to end the inning.

Missteps widen A’s lead

Contreras’ choice not to break from third and see where the inning went was the first of two missteps in the same inning that helped Oakland widen its lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Nolan Gorman lost control of a ball at second base and was unable to attempt a double play that would have ended the inning. That allowed A’s leadoff hitter Ruiz to reach first on the force-out.

He did not stay there.

Ruiz added a stolen base to his earlier homer, and by getting to second, he was in position to score on Tyler Nevin’s RBI single instead of Nevin never coming up at all in that inning.

When a lucky bounce isn’t so lucky

Matz held the A’s scoring to a two-run homer through four innings and his teammates had claimed a lead for him going into the bottom of the fifth. Three consecutive base hits put all of that in jeopardy and, momentarily, gave the A’s the lead.

A bounce — or rather a lack of one — changed that.

Shea Langeliers' clear double to the left-center gap got caught between the base of the wall and the warning track. Wedged into that tight spot, the ball did not ricochet out to a Cardinals outfielder. Instead of Langeliers driving in two teammates to tie the game and immediately untie it, the hit was ruled a ground-rule double and Zack Gelof was called out of the dugout to get back at third base.

He did not stay there, either.

Matz got outs from the next two batters, but each of those balls in play brought home a runner to push the A’s from a 3-3 tie into a two-run lead. Gelof scored on a ground out, and Langeliers followed him with a run on a sacrifice fly. The ground-rule double gave Matz a brief reprieve, but — like the ball — he was wedged in and unable to get free.

©2024 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.