 for his 17th homer of the season.The Cardinals tied it at 4 in the eighth with two runs off Tampa Bay's bullpen. Yadier Molina's two-out, run-scoring single in the eighth off Tommy Hunter scored Pham, and singles by Jedd Gyorko and Stephen Piscotty loaded the bases. Boxberger relieved Hunter and gave up an RBI single to Kolten Wong.Tyler Lyons (2-0) pitched the ninth to earn the win.Blake Snell pitched seven innings for the Rays, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks. Snell, who had never before faced the Cardinals, struck out the side in his last inning. He finished with seven strikeouts.Mike Leake, who was in danger of losing his spot in the rotation as the Cardinals waited until Friday to announce he would start Saturday, also went seven innings, allowing all four of his runs on three homers.Lucas Duda hit a two-out, two-run homer to center in the first to drive in Evan Longoria. Duda has three homers in 10 at-bats against Leake.Corey Dickerson notched his career-high 25th homer with two outs in the fifth, making it 3-0.Dickerson misplayed three balls in left, but only one was called for an error. The Rays had played nine straight errorless games before the miscue.Paul DeJong got St. Louis on the board with an RBI triple in the sixth after Dickerson allowed the ball to carom past him in left. Two batters later, Molina lifted a short fly to left, and Dickerson waved his arms to indicate he couldn't see it. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier raced over and dove, almost making the play. Molina ended up with a run-scoring double.Adeiny Hechavarria put the Rays ahead 4-2 in the seventh when he hit an 0-2 pitch into the left field bullpen.TRAINER'S ROOMCardinals: 3B Gyorko appeared to pull a muscle as he rounded third in the eighth. He was replaced with a pinch runner. OF Pham (foot soreness) was back in the starting lineup, hitting second. He had a pinch-hit single in the seventh inning Friday.Rays: 2B Brad Miller was back in the starting lineup. He left Thursday's game against Toronto with a bruised right shoulder after being hit by a pitch. He pinch-hit Friday and struck out.UP NEXTRays: RHP Chris Archer (9-7, 3.76) has never faced the Cardinals. He has reached double digits in strikeouts in each of his last three starts and has nine such games this season, tying the club record.Cardinals: RHP Lance Lynn (10-6, 3.17) will be making his team-leading 27th start. He is nine strikeouts away from 900 in his career, which would tie him for 10th in team history. He is 0-1 in two appearances (one start) against Tampa Bay.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Cardinals send struggling Leake to face Rays 7h ago• 2 min read ST. LOUIS -- There were calls for a fresh face to make Saturday night's start for the St. Louis Cardinals, such as minor league sensation Jack Flaherty or even John Gant.But manager Mike Matheny has opted to give Mike Leake another crack at getting big league hitters out, something he has failed to do with alarming consistency since carrying the National League's lowest earned run average into Memorial Day.Leake's outing against the Tampa Bay Rays in Busch Stadium might be a do-or-die outing of sorts for him, at least this year. His ERA has gone up in every month, reaching an untenable 10.31 in August.While factors out of his control haven't helped -- Leake disclosed late last month that last year's attack of shingles has affected his strength, and the defense behind him hasn't always been crisp -- he hasn't been close to the same pitcher over the last three months that he was to start the year.Sunday night's 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., was a case in point. Leake (7-12, 4.16 ERA) worked just three innings, allowing six runs off eight hits with no walks and three strikeouts."Just looking over all options and know that if we give Mike the ball, we have a good chance of seeing a lot of the things that we saw early in the season," Matheny said. "He was one of the better pitchers in the league during that time. We just have to get him right and back in that direction." Another short start by Leake would be crippling for St. Louis (64-64). Its bullpen had to cover 17 outs Friday night because Michael Wacha was cuffed for nine hits and five runs in losing his third straight start.The only positive on the mound for the Cardinals was Ryan Sherriff. In his big league debut, Sherriff pitched three scoreless innings, giving up two hits and fanning four."I was numb through the whole thing; it was just awesome," he said. "It was a great experience." But Sherriff's work wasn't enough to keep St. Louis from losing for the eighth time in 11 games. It remains 4 1/2 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs in the NL Central and five games back of Colorado for the NL's second wild card.Despite winning 7-3 to up its record to 64-66, Tampa Bay remained three games behind Minnesota for the American League's second wild-card spot. And it again had to call on its overworked bullpen for 16 outs, the second time in three nights that's happened.That means the pressure is on Blake Snell (2-6, 4.42) to produce the kind of start he had on Sunday. Snell dominated Seattle in a 3-0 win at Tropicana Field, limiting the Mariners to two hits and two walks over seven innings and fanning eight."We're going to need some big starts to give us length," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Snell."We have a lot of confidence in our bullpen, because we have to keep going to them."
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