Nathan Church brought home Thomas Saggese with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning as the host St. Louis Cardinals came from behind to beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-5 on Tuesday.
Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt hit a pair of home runs and drove in three runs to set up the rubber game of the series on Wednesday.
After the Cardinals tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with an unearned run, Saggese was the free runner at second to start the 10th.
He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Church’s drive to right, beating Angel Martinez’s throw to the plate.
Riley O’Brien (2-0, 0.00 ERA) picked up the win after throwing a scoreless 10th.
Tim Herrin (0-1, 0.00 ERA) took the loss for Cleveland.
The Guardians broke the game open in the top of the eighth with four straight hits to bring home three runs.
After Jojo Romero retired Chase DeLauter, Ryne Stanek came on to face Jose Ramirez.
Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo promptly singled to put runners at first and third.
George Valera brought Ramirez home with a double and Angel Martinez brought in Manzardo and pinch-runner Juan Brito with a double to right to give Cleveland a three-run lead.
Wetherholt helped the Cardinals climb back in the game when he hit his second home run, a two-run opposite-field shot to left, in the bottom of the inning.
The Cardinals tied it in the ninth when Masyn Winn’s two-out grounder went through Brito’s legs.
Winn went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a double by Yohel Pozo.
Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy went five innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs.
The right-hander walked one and struck out two on 87 pitches.
Guardians starter Joey Cantillo went six innings. The southpaw gave up five hits and two earned runs.
He walked two and struck out four on 82 pitches.
The teams traded solo home runs in the early innings.
Ramirez hit one with two outs in the first and Daniel Schneemann hit one with two outs in the second.
The Cardinals matched them with Ivan Herrera hitting one in the first and Wetherholt hitting a two-out shot in the third.
