After 19-inning affair, the D-backs’ next game was nearly as weird

PHOENIX — Nearly everything that could have gone wrong for the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday did go wrong in their game against the Diamondbacks.

A day after having to play 19 innings, the Cardinals lost their starting pitcher Michael Wacha in the second inning due to shoulder tightness. They made two errors. They blew a 5-2 lead in the sixth inning and had to use seven pitchers, and the whole game lasted 3:52. This came, by the way, as the Cardinals are trying to clinch their division.

The Diamondbacks won, 9-7.

For those aforementioned reasons and more, it was a weird game. And the contest ended with Archie Bradley pitching against his former teammate, Paul Goldschmidt, who represented the go-ahead run for St. Louis in the ninth inning. Bradley got Goldy to ground into a double play to end the game.

“I knew Goldy was on deck and I was like, ‘Here we go,'” Bradley said. “This is a moment that you kind of think about when he comes in town, like, ‘Man, facing Goldy with the game on the line in Arizona, that’d be pretty cool,’ and then it happens. I’m glad we came out on top.”

The D-backs scored one run on a wild pitch and two more on an infield grounder. There were multiple replay reviews. And Arizona set a new franchise record for the most strikeouts by its pitching staff in a three-game series (46).

After being eliminated from postseason contention on Monday, spoiling the fun for other teams is about the extent of what the D-backs can do from here on out. And if it’s any consolation, they showed resolve on Wednesday by scoring seven runs in the sixth inning after having to stay up past their bedtime the night before.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or the situation that we’re in,” infielder Wilmer Flores said. “We just play hard. Everybody has to do what they’re supposed to do. It doesn’t matter what’s going on off the field, so that’s what we did today and we know we have a good team — we can beat anybody.”

The Diamondbacks improved to 82-77. Merrill Kelly, in what figures to be his last start of the season, allowed five runs over six innings on eight hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. He was in line for the loss until his team came back.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Cardinals used three different pitchers as the D-backs sent 10 hitters to the plate and a seven-run onslaught was capped by a two-run home run by Flores. Every spot in the D-backs’ batting order had a player score a run, except for that of Jake Lamb and the pitcher’s spot.

Flores finished the day 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

“You don’t feel 100%, but once you go out there, you feel like you’re good to play,” Flores said. “Obviously nobody got enough sleep, but you know, they didn’t get enough sleep [either]. So we always have to battle, no matter what the situation is.”

EXTRA BASES

— D-backs outfielder Abraham Almonte left the game with a strained left hamstring.

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