The Orioles came to Busch Stadium looking to finish the job, but Thursday turned into another reminder that sweeps have been slipping through their fingers. Baltimore scored five runs, pushed the Cardinals, and still walked out with a 7-5 loss after Trevor Rogers had his roughest outing since May.
Rogers never really found the same rhythm he had last time out against the Rays, when he allowed three runs over seven innings and struck out six while earning the win. This one got away from him early.
He gave up six earned runs on seven hits in five innings, and the Cardinals jumped on him right away with a Blaze Jordan three-run homer, the first of his St. Louis career.
To Rogers’ credit, he did settle in for a stretch. He worked through the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts, but former Oriole Ramón Urías cracked that open with a two-run homer, his third of the season.
In the next inning, a walk and two singles set the stage for an Alec Burleson grounder to first that brought home St. Louis’ sixth run.
The frustrating part for Baltimore was that Rogers actually got plenty of 0-2 counts. He attacked with his fastball and kept hitters chasing, even against the top of the order.
But the finish wasn’t there, and those 0-2 spots kept drifting into 3-2 counts, giving the Cardinals a chance to cash in. Rogers said afterward, “Lately, the homers have been killing me,” and added, “I’m going to try to figure out how to get the ball to the ground more consistently, and I wouldn’t really change a whole lot other than that.”
Baltimore’s bullpen held up the way it has for much of the series. Cam Sanders followed Rogers with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts.
Then Anthony Nunez came in for Craig Albernaz, who has faced questions about his leadership lately, and started with a pair of strikeouts before things unraveled. Urías walked, then came around to score on a wild pitch and an RBI single by Nathan Church.
The Orioles’ bats were slow to get going against a Cardinals club that was forced into an opener because of a shortage of starting pitching. Gordon Graceffo, a 26-year-old right-hander, was outstanding. He no-hit Baltimore through three innings on just 38 pitches before being replaced by Justin Bruihl in the fourth.
Albernaz said after the game, “The first guy just mowed right through us,” and added, “We didn’t really have an answer for him. Coming in, we knew he had a high walk rate, but he came out pumping strikes.”
Baltimore didn’t get its first hit until the fourth, when Jackson Holliday doubled. He’s been producing lately out of the leadoff spot, and he kept it rolling from there. The Orioles finally got on the board in the fifth on a Colton Cowser sacrifice fly, then made their biggest swing later in the game.
When Caleb Ferguson, a lefty with a 5.23 ERA, took over for St. Louis in the seventh, Coby Mayo delivered the loudest blow of the night. With two runners aboard, Mayo hammered a cutter to the deepest part of the park for a 446-foot shot, cutting the deficit to 6-4.
Baltimore picked up another run in the eighth when Gunnar Henderson ripped an opposite-field RBI double that scored Holliday, who finished with two hits along with Christian Encarnacion-Strand. But the Cardinals’ insurance run in that same inning ended up mattering.
The middle of the Orioles’ lineup never really carried the load. Pete Alonso and rookie Samuel Basallo both went 0-for-4, and Alonso struck out four times in what was only the second time in his last 18 games he didn’t record a hit.
The loss marked another failed sweep for Baltimore, with three of its last four series ending that way. Now the Orioles head to Sacramento to face the Athletics, the second-worst team in baseball, with a chance to stay in the wild card mix and make the most of a trip that also ends against the Rockies.
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