Heyward Shows Off the Arm

As far as the dramatic theatre of baseball this time of year presents, the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday was one of the best. Home runs, hard slides, a big play at the plate, and more as the two division rivals battled.

“That one had some interesting twists,” acknowledged Mike Matheny in his postgame media session on FSN. “We get into the mess that we were in there in the 8th and still able to come out–yeah, impressive.”

That mess was a bases loaded situation with no outs and a 4-3 lead. Seth Maness was called in from the bullpen to relieve Jonathan Broxton, who had issued two walks. Maness got a fly ball to right field–where Jason Heyward made the catch and then fired a throw home to nail Anthony Rizzo at the plate for the double play and to maintain the lead.

“This guy’s a great defender,” praised Matheny of Heyward. “He doesn’t have that many opportunities to show it because a lot of times people are going to shutdown and not run on him, but when he comes up throwing it’s very accurate and has a lot of velocity to it. He’s just an all-around very good player and it came in a big spot–we needed it.”

It was the second defensive gem by Heyward on the day, who also charged hard to make an outstretched grab earlier.

Catcher Yadier Molina sprained his left thumb making the tag on Rizzo but finished the inning before yielding to Tony Cruz for the 9th inning.

Stating only that it hurt and was sore, Matheny did tell reporters Molina will undergo an MRI on Monday.

Tommy Pham continued his hot-hitting with a solo home run to put the Cardinals on top 1-0 in the 1st inning and later in the frame Stephen Piscotty followed with a 2-run shot. Jhonny Peralta drove in Matt Carpenter in the 3rd for the other run.

Carlos Martinez struck out six batters and allowed only two runs in 6.2 innings pitched. Trevor Rosenthal got the final four outs for his 45th save of the season–a new career high.

photo credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports