PHOENIX (AP) — Nolan Arenado was battling at the plate, fouling off multiple tough pitches from Arizona’s Madison Bumgarner before the eighth pitch of the at-bat. It was about a foot inside, but the St. Louis third baseman was still somehow able to yank it into the left field seats.
Even Arenado was surprised when the ball left the yard. Bumgarner watched in disbelief.
“I was just lucky to get Madison there,” Arenado said.
It was a telling moment for two teams heading opposite directions in a hurry: St. Louis is rising to the top of the NL Central while nothing is going right for the Diamondbacks. Arenado’s homer was part of the Cardinals’ 8-6 win on Friday night over Arizona, which has lost 12 games in a row.
It’s the D-backs’ longest losing streak since a 14-game skid in 2004.
Tyler O’Neill hit a two-run homer for the second straight night, Jake Woodford pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Cardinals held on in the ninth to win their third straight game.
Arizona trailed 8-5 entering the ninth but loaded the bases with one out. Ketel Marte pushed home a run with an RBI groundout, but Daniel Ponce de Leon got Josh Rojas to ground out on a slow roller to end the game.
The Cardinals never trailed, jumping to a 4-0 lead in the first. Paul Goldschmidt had a sacrifice fly, Yadier Molina added an RBI double and O’Neill’s homer easily cleared the left field wall.
O’Neill has homered in his first two games since returning from the 10-day injured list because of fracture in his left middle finger that kept him out of the lineup for nearly two weeks. Even with the missed time, he has 10 homers this year.
Arenado added his solo homer in the third that just cleared David Peralta’s glove over the left field fence. It was the third baseman’s 11th homer of the season…
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