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Cards Beat Marlins In 20 Innings
Vina's First Hit In 10 At-Bats Delivers A Victory
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
04/27/2003
MIAMI -- The Cardinals played more than two games worth of baseball on Sunday, but they were only credited with one victory. Rest assured, they'll take it.
Fernando Vina broke out of the depths of an 0-for-9 slump -- er, that is an 0-for-9 day -- with a two-out RBI single in the top of the 20th inning to deliver a 7-6 win for the Cardinals over the Marlins. At six hours, seven minutes, it was the longest game in terms of innings and time in the Majors this season. The 20 innings set a Marlins franchise record, and marked the longest Cardinals game since a 25-inning contest on Sept. 11, 1974, when St. Louis beat the Mets 4-3 in New York.
The last Major League game to go at least 20 innings was Aug. 31, 1993, when the Indians played 22 innings at the Twins. The last game to take more time than Sunday's marathon was a Rangers-Red Sox game that went 6:35 on Aug. 25, 2001.
It was a game full of redemption for the Cardinals. In addition to Vina's big hit, Steve Kline and Dustin Hermanson bounced back from rough recent outings to combine for six shutout innings to close out the game. Kline was the winning pitcher after taking the loss twice in the last three nights.
"This is big for me because I've been struggling so bad," Kline said. "I blew two chances this road trip. I take everything to heart. I'm an emotional guy. I go out there and put it all on the line and when you get beat like (that), you just feel like a little peanut."
Edgar Renteria kicked off the winning rally with a one-out single against Carl Pavano, who was scheduled to start on Monday at Arizona. After Eli Marrero flied out to center, Mike Matheny singled to right. Vina followed with his first base hit after a long afternoon of struggles.
"No secret, I'm struggling big time," Vina said. "To get that was big -- to get us out of here."
The victory made for sweet vindication for the St. Louis bullpen, which gave away what appeared to be a sure victory after eight strong innings from Garrett Stephenson. The righty's start was just one of several potential front-page stories that were relegated to barely-noteworthy status. The Cardinals tallied four triples in the game, and Tino Martinez equaled a career high with five hits.
"I felt good," said Martinez, whose 5-for-8 night bumped his average up to .337. "Saw the ball good, found some holes and had some good at-bats."
Stephenson rebounded from a pair of subpar starts, but was denied his second victory of the season. He allowed a run on four hits, striking out five and walking four. It was his longest outing since going eight innings against Montreal on Sept. 6, 2000, and his ERA dipped from 6.43 to 4.97.
"I just wanted to go out there and pitch my game," he said. "Not have any other thoughts but pitching. Not mechanics, not anything. Just go out there and be aggressive and make them hit the ball. I walked a few people today but for the most part I was pretty aggressive. It wasn't a bad day."
Over their last full turn through the rotation, St. Louis starters have been stellar, giving up 11 earned runs in 36 2/3 innings for a 2.70 ERA. But only Brett Tomko, who pitched a complete game on Friday, has a win in that span.
When Stephenson gave way to Jeff Fassero for the ninth on Sunday, it got ugly quickly. Ramon Castro led off with a home run to left field, and two batters later the light-hitting Luis Castillo followed suit to make it 6-3. After Juan Pierre's single, manager Tony La Russa lifted Fassero for Russ Springer.
That didn't work out any better.
Ivan Rodriguez singled, and Juan Encarnacion just beat out a possible double play, allowing Pierre to score on what could have been the game's final play. Mike Lowell followed with a game-tying homer, his sixth of the year and second in two days. It was the fourth long ball allowed by Springer in 10 1/3 innings.
But after that the Cardinals bullpen was airtight, if not exactly perfect. Kiko Calero tossed two scoreless, walking four and striking out five. Cal Eldred gave up three hits and two walks over three shutout innings. Hermanson, who gave up the winning hit on Saturday night, pitched three interesting but ultimately scoresless frames, walking five.
"It's a big pickup for myself and Kline, just because of what happened," Hermanson said. "We were the so-called dummies last night, and now, today, we stuck it out. After throwing quite a bit, we stuck in there three innings each. So yeah, it's a nice pick-me-up."
Neither Kline nor Hermanson was expected to appear in the game at all, regardless of their recent results. Kline suffered a mild calf injury on Saturday night, and was only available in an emergency. Hermanson pitched 1 2/3 innings on Saturday and 1 2/3 on Thursday.
"We were running out of guys, and I said, 'Hermie ain't gonna pitch the whole time,'" Kline said. "I was looking for a starter come down. And I was like, man, if they do that, I'm gonna be Bitter Bob because I wanted to play in this game. I owed them a little. That's the good thing about being able to pitch every day. You come right back and do what you have to do."
Drew lifted a one-out triple in the first inning, and Pujols drove him in immediately with a sac fly for a 1-0 lead. Scott Rolen doubled home Jim Edmonds for the second St. Louis run. Todd Hollandsworth doubled in the third for Florida and later scored on Pierre's groundout, but that was all the Marlins could manage against Stephenson.
The score remained 2-1 into the seventh, when Martinez singled, took second on Renteria's single and moved to third on Brad Penny's throwing error on the same play. Marrero drove him home with a sac fly and it was 3-1.
Marrero appeared to put a close game out of reach in the top of the ninth. With two out and one on, he tallied the team's third triple, into left-center just out of reach of a diving Pierre. That made it 5-1, and Marrero came home on Orlando Palmeiro's sacrifice bunt.
But what looked to be a comfortable Cardinals win instead spiraled out of control quickly as Florida roared back in the ninth.
Official Web Site of the St. Louis Cardinals
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