Cardinals' Relief Corps Walks 5 Padres in the 7th Blowing a 4 Run Lead as West Coast "Strikes Out" Against North Shore in the Finale of the 4 Game Set

After an abrupt end in their last meeting, North Shore and West Coast completed the finale of their 4 game set at Bird. The Cardinals were looking to become the first team to reach the 20 win mark this season while the Padres were hoping to put a halt to their current four game season slide, in the end North Shore stole the game from a Cardinal squad that could not shut the door.

NorthShore 6 CARDINALS 5

Sugi got the start for the Cards in this one while Nakamura who hadn't pitched in 2-3 weeks got the ball for the Padres. Sugi didn't look like his normal self early on as fastball velocity wasn't there, relying on secondary pitches he was able to get Gatzke to line out on the first pitch of the ballgame and work around a Fleurant double getting North Shore's 3-4 hitters to ground out stranding Fleurant on 3rd. Turnbull led off the offensive 1st for the Cards with a hard-fought 8 pitch walk and moved to 2nd and 3rd on a groundout and pass ball respectively. With Turnbull now on 3rd and 2 out, Baybay would drive the 1-0 offering from Nakamura just out the reach of the North Shore second baseman and into centre field giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead after 1. 

The second inning seemed to be no problem for the North Vancouver resident as Sugi would retire the side in order. Hendriks back from injury would lead off the offensive second with a hard single through the left side, swipe second and advance to third on a wild pitch. With runners now at the corners with 1 out, Crozier would get jammed on a 2-0 fastball and could only watch as Padres' third baseman Edmonds would make a stellar grab for the 2nd out of the inning as he rolled along the Cardinal dugout fence. Nakamura would sit Symons down on strikes, stranding two runners in scoring position. 1-0 Cards after 2.

A two out Gatzke single that almost took Sugi's head off would become moot as Sugi would "K" Fleurant for the third out of the 3rd keeping the Padres off the scoreboard. 10-batter Miles would lead off the bottom of the 3rd with a 4 pitch walk and promptly see Turnbull reach base behind him thanks to a beautiful bunt single putting runners at 1st and 2nd and none out. Nakamura would keep Sugi off base once again as Sugi would bunt through the 0-1 pitch and go down swinging on 3 pitches. Yuen would work a 7 pitch walk loading the bases, bringing us to the turning point of the game. With North Shore's only two subs burnt, Nakamura had to be attended to on the mound for a blister that was bleeding, Nakamura was sent to left field while Blackwood took over duties as the new pitcher. Armistead was given two options: either Nakamura has 15 minutes to get rid of the blood or since he was only batting 9 batters he also had the option of burning Nakamura and letting the opposing manager pick one of his burned substitutes to replace Nakamura for the rest of the game. Armistead chose the latter as Yam picked Shan to replace Nakamura for the duration of the game. In a puzzling decision, Armistead had Blackwood take over as the new pitcher, pitching to Baybay (Baybay 1-1 HR in his only at-bat vs. Blackwood) with the bases loaded, Blackwood would show the Cardinals that he developed a commendable breaking ball in the last week as he would go on to strike out back to back West Coast batters stranding the bases loaded. 1-0 Cards after 3.

Sugi rolled through the 4th with no issues leading to the bottom of the 4th where Crozier would hit a 2 out double to LF, Symons would then jump on the very next pitch delivered by Blackwood and deposit that into RF for a double himself, giving every West Coast player an extra-base hit this season. That Symons double scoring Crozier from second with ease. Miles would reach base putting runners on the corners for Turnbull who would make the score 3-0 on a base knock through the left side. Sugi would then reach base on an error as Miles would aggressively score from 2nd on the infield grounder, 4-0 Cards after 4. 

The bottom of the 5th saw Hendriks single handedly score the 5th run for the Cardinals, the 2016 Coquitlam Peewee AAA stud would reach on an infield single then advance to second on a throwing error by the Padres' 3rd baseman. Hendriks would steal 3rd while Kang was in the midst of striking out for the 2nd out of the inning, then Hendriks would alertly steal home on the same play catching North Shore's players sleeping after the steal of 3rd. 5-0 Cards after 5. 

Sugi would run into some trouble in the 6th, facing Laroche for the 3rd time around with Fleurant at 1st thanks in part to an error, Laroche would hit a 2-seam fastball that one-hopped the RF fence scoring Fleurant with ease and putting Laroche at 3rd with 2 out, Laroche with his second extra-base hit in as many games. After walking the next batter, Yam turned to Kang to strand two of Sugi's inherited runners and that he did striking out Edmonds on three pitches. 5-1 Cards after 6.

The 7th inning is where everything fell to pieces. With a four run lead, Kang would walk 3 of the first 4 batters in the inning loading it up with 1 out and the tying run at the plate. With the bases juiced, Yam would turn to Miles who would give up a shallow single to leadoff hitter Gatzke and could only watch as the Cardinal right-fielder would throw the ball to home rather than take the easy force out at 2nd, instead the bases were again loaded with 1 out. Miles would give up back-to-back hits to North Shore's 2-3 hitters pulling North Shore within 1 run and the bases still loaded with 1 out. Yam would talk to Miles and let him know that he liked the matchup between Miles and Baker and the ability to roll a double play up the middle, Miles was confident in his ability to get Baker out but would go on and walk North Shore's cleanup hitter scoring Gatzke to tie the ballgame at 5s. With two usually reliable relief arms not being able to get the job done, Yam would now turn to Hendriks who would go one finger down on the trigger and light the zone up with fastballs. Edmonds would hit a foul out for the second out, while Ozolins would battle Hendriks for 6 pitches before seeing the 7th fastball just out of the zone to walk in the go-ahead run. 6-5 North Shore after 6 1/2 innings.

Down to their last two outs, Sugi would keep the Cards alive as he would barely beat out an infield single. Sugi would swipe second the very next pitch but could only watch as his 3-4 hitters would both strikeout to Blackwood giving both Yuen and Baybay hat-tricks on the night. North Shore who had a chip on their shoulder after the forfeit loss on Sunday mauled each other after the win as West Coast had just handed them a 6-5 win on a silver platter.

Strikeouts were a common theme throughout the Cardinal lineup today, a whopping 16 to be exact. Give credit where credit is due, Blackwood pitched very well in relief of a bloody Nakamura, Blackwood developed a sharp breaking ball in the last week and used it to his full advantage as he would record 12 of his 14 relief outs via. the punchout. Laroche had a massive game, hitting an RBI triple in the 6th and called a very good game behind the plate keeping the Cardinal batters off-balance all game. For the West Coast Cardinals, it was a reality check, a game that was in the bag and instead handed to North Shore, too many runners stranded, too many strikeouts, mental errors in the field when it mattered and the biggest downfall was the free passes in the 7th. The relief corps and the Cardinals will have to be so much better moving forward as they intently try to lock up 1st in the league with 8 season games remaining. Their next test...the Richmond Chuckers next Wednesday 6pm @ Blundell.