ST. LOUIS (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt homered twice and scored the game-ending run on Lars Nootbaar’s single in the 10th inning as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Wednesday.
Goldschmidt was intentionally walked to open the 10th and executed a one-out double steal with automatic runner Tommy Edman. Nolan Arenado was intentionally walked. After a fielder’s choice for the second out, Nootbaar lined a single to right field off Michael Fulmer (5-6) and St. Louis improved to 11-5 in extra innings.
It was the first walk-off hit in Nootbaar’s big league career.
“It’s pretty unbelievable honestly,” he said. “I always wanted to know what it felt like, but now it’s here.”
The Cardinals led 2-1 entering the ninth. Miguel Cabrera hit a two-out pinch double to right field off St. Louis closer Alex Reyes. Harold Castro, the third Tigers pinch hitter of the inning, drove in Cabrera with a soft single to center, giving Reyes his third blown save in 31 chances.
Cardinals starter Jon Lester allowed one run on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts in five innings.
T.J. McFarland (3-0) pitched a scoreless 10th and has not allowed a run in 18 2/3 innings over 12 August appearances.
Tarik Skubal gave up Goldschmidt’s homers in the first and third innings but held the Cardinals to one additional hit and had 10 strikeouts in five innings.
“Tip your hat off to Goldschmidt, he got two really good swings off of him,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “For a while, those were the only two swings that looked good at all. He had really dominated that lineup and was coming right at them with various pitches.”
Goldschmidt hit the first pitch he saw 427 feet into the left-field bleachers for his 900th career RBI. He hit his 21st homer of the season in his next at-bat. It was his 18th career multi-homer game and first since Sept. 13, 2019, against Milwaukee.
“I obviously had those two home runs, but I came up two other times with guys in scoring position and wasn’t able to get the job done,” Goldschmidt said. “Just a good job by the team right there to pick me up.”
Jonathan Schoop had an RBI single in the fifth to get Detroit within 2-1.
WINDING DOWN
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina said before the game that he plans to retire after next season. The 39-year-old Molina and the team agreed to terms on a one-year contract Tuesday that will bring him back for his 19th season with the franchise that drafted him in the fourth round of the 2000 amateur draft.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Tigers: LHP Matthew Boyd (left arm discomfort) pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday and is expected to be activated in time to start Sunday. C Eric Haase (right abdominal strain) homered in his first rehab at-bat for Toledo on Tuesday and will be evaluated after an off day Thursday.
Cardinals: Placed RHP Jack Flaherty (right shoulder strain) on the 10-day injured list. Flaherty was removed in the third inning Tuesday night after allowing four runs and experiencing a drop in velocity. RHP Junior Fernández was recalled from Triple-A Memphis.
UP NEXT
Tigers: RHP Matt Manning (3-5, 5.91 ERA) will start Friday night against the Toronto Blue Jays as Detroit opens a seven-game homestand.
Cardinals: RHP Miles Mikolas (1-0, 1.00) will make his third start of the season Thursday night at Pittsburgh to open a seven-game trip. The Pirates counter with Mitch Keller (4-10, 6.35), who is 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA in his career against St. Louis.
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