Goldschmidt homer only blemish for rookie Tommy Henry in D-backs’ loss

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks rookie starter Tommy Henry on Friday night recorded a career-high seven strikeouts — all of which were swing and misses — after registering only three Ks in each of his first three MLB starts.

“I think that’s a testament to Carson (Kelly) too,” Henry said postgame. “Tonight was a night where trusted the fingers he put down and was just kind of robotic from that sense and just found a groove that way. So I think a lot of the sequencing had to do with that and credit goes to him.”

The left-hander finished the night with another impressive performance that only featured one blemish — a Paul Goldschmidt home run — while allowing one run on six hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch through 5.1 innings on 95 pitches (60 strikes) as the D-backs (55-64) lost 5-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals (67-51).

“I think it was a step in the right direction,” Henry said of his fourth career start. “Some of the breaking stuff felt better tonight, changeup felt pretty good. I think the command — I fell behind some hitters — but I think it was a little bit better overall. So I think those are positive takeaways. I still have some reflection to do for sure.”

Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas was nearly unhittable — literally — as the right-hander had his perfect game broken up by D-backs’ Josh Rojas with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.

Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, however, they only mustered two hits off Mikolas — the second of which didn’t come until Sergio Alcantara’s double in the bottom of the eighth that led to Arizona’s lone run on the night.

The Cardinals starter finished the ballgame having allowed only one run on two hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch while striking out four on 108 pitches (70 strikes).

“You got a pitcher who is throwing the ball pretty good, limiting us to [two] hits — it just turned out to be a long night for us offensively,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said postgame.

In his first plate appearance of the year at his old ballpark, the former D-backs first baseman Goldschmidt was greeted with a standing ovation from the crowd of 32,183. The MVP candidate followed that up with a solo blast to left field to open the scoring and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and extend his all-time home run lead at Chase Field to 102.

“He didn’t make a lot of mistakes. To be honest with you I think the Goldy home run was a pretty good pitch,” Lovullo said. “I just think he kept going in there a little bit and Goldy made an adjustment.”

An absolute no-doubter from #STLCards Paul Goldschmidt, who is still the all-time home run leader at #Dbacks Chase Field with 102.pic.twitter.com/W63JSc0ioa

— Jake Anderson (@jwa1994) August 20, 2022

“I felt like I got in there, it was supposed to be a heater in,” Henry said. “It felt good out of my hand. When I kind of looked up, I thought it was going to be a good result. I think that’s just tip of the cap on one of those things (to a) really great hitter having a really great season.”

After five straight goose-egg innings from both teams, disaster struck for the D-backs in the top of the seventh frame.

With right-handed reliever Kevin Ginkel on the mound, it came down to a bases-load, two-out matchup with Goldschmidt at the plate. Goldschmidt hit a comebacker off of Ginkel that trickled away just far enough for an RBI infield single that scored Yadier Molina to make it 2-0.

Nolan Arenado, the very next batter, hit his third double of the game produce two more runs and bring his night to a nearly perfect 4-for-5 with seven total bases.

D-backs RHP Edwin Uceta’s first pitch in relief of Ginkel was a passed ball on a cross-up that scored Goldschmidt to make it 5-0 Cardinals and bring the St. Louis 1B to 3-for-4 with one HR, two RBIs, one walk and two runs scored in the ballgame.

Lovullo added that Uceta and Carson Kelly were using pitch comms, so the manager is unsure exactly how or why the cross-up happened.

“It was good to see what Tommy was able to do against a very experienced right-handed hitting lineup. … We talk about our young players growing up and maturing and getting that experience — this was a good day for Tommy,” Lovullo said.

“But bottom line is we didn’t win the game. He handed it off to the bullpen. I know things got a little sloppy in the seventh inning. We didn’t play our typical baseball and it cost us four runs and I think that was the difference in the game.”

EXTRA BASES

– Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina went 3-for-4 with three singles to bring his career hit total to 2,152 to pass the late great Yogi Berra for fifth all-time among primary catchers.

– St. Louis DH Albert Pujols went 0-for-3 with a hat trick of strikeouts and a hit-by-pitch.

UP NEXT

The D-backs host the Cardinals in the second of the three-game weekend series on Saturday at 5:10 p.m. on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

Arizona LHP Madison Bumgarner (6-12, 4.37 ERA) is scheduled to start against St. Louis RHP Dakota Hudson (6-6, 4.17 ERA).

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