香港三级片

PHILADELPHIA 鈥� It did not take long into his first, brief glimpse of the majors for Kyle Leahy to learn how bullpens are managed and what he did not want to become as a reliever.

鈥淚 saw how much matchups are important,鈥� he said late Monday night. 鈥淚 told myself that offseason I want to be a guy who can get both sides (of the plate) out. I don鈥檛 want to pigeonhole myself into being a righty specialist and only come in a certain situation in a certain game.鈥�

He became much more.

The Cardinals have a nine-game winning streak as proof.

In a gambit made possible because of the rotation鈥檚 lengthy starts over the weekend, the Cardinals lured the Philadelphia Phillies into a choice that hot-wired the matchups the Cardinals preferred late if they had the lead. It was Leahy who made it possible with his ability to retire even the most name-brand left-handed hitters.

A crisp, compelling ballgame Monday between a team expected to contend and one suddenly rewriting expectations hinged on manipulating the game for such matchups. The Cardinals engineered the ones they wanted for their bullpen, and Masyn Winn got the one he preferred against a lefty reliever from the Phillies.

Winn鈥檚 solo home run off lefty Matt Strahm in the seventh inning was the deciding run in the Cardinals鈥� 3-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park.

The bullpen was the difference.

鈥淎 win like that gives that group some good confidence,鈥� manager Oliver Marmol said, 鈥渒nowing they can hang with anybody.鈥�

In the first test of the Cardinals鈥� longest winning streak since they sizzled to 17 consecutive in 2021, they faced one of the National League鈥檚 elite clubs. The Cardinals constructed their limited offense around solo home runs from Winn and Ivan Herrera and a daring bit of baserunning by Nolan Arenado to create their first run.

Matthew Liberatore pitched 5 1/3 innings and matched Phillies lefty Cristopher Sanchez inning for inning as the sides seesawed through two lead-taking rallies by the Cardinals and two game-tying responses from the Phillies.

In the sixth inning, the Phillies had just tied the score, 2-2, when Liberatore allowed a single to Alec Bohm, a right-handed hitter.

Up came the point in the Phillies lineup the Cardinals wanted to shape.

Philadelphia wrote the lineup to face lefty Liberatore and had five consecutive right-handed batters due up. Without Phil Maton for the evening, Marmol wanted to use Leahy for multiple innings and invite the Phillies to unload their bench of left-handed bats against him only to be vulnerable to lefty JoJo Romero later.

Everybody in the rocking ballpark 鈥� with 42,513 tickets sold 鈥� knows the Cardinals are steering the game toward closer Ryan Helsley. There are inevitably some officials and fans affiliated with the Phillies watching the game and envisioning doing the same after the trade deadline.

Lurking on the Phillies bench to face the right-handed Helsley were three left-handed hitters for the back third of the lineup.

Why wait to get them into the game?

Leahy鈥檚 availability and ability to go multiple innings put him into the game in the sixth and forced the Phillies to make a choice. If Phillies manager Rob Thomson unloaded their left-handed bats in that inning, then the Cardinals had lefty Romero set to face them in a latter inning with even more potentially at stake. The Phillies leaned left and marched out their pinch hitters.

Leahy capitalized.

鈥淭hat was the game,鈥� Marmol said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a guy who can handle that workload and takes pride in being able to do that. Him being able to get a taste of that today in that environment it鈥檚 good to build off of it. Being able to use him when the game can be flipped is nice to have. ...

鈥淲e felt like our best chance to keep our score was to bring him in when we did.鈥�

Leahy (1-0) retired both left-handed pinch hitters he faced in the sixth to leave two runners stranded and keep a tie game intact.

Another pinch hitter opened the seventh inning, and Leahy retired him too to bring the inning back around the top with at-bats against two of the top left-handed hitters in the majors, former MVP Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Although Leahy would be working deep into his second and then third inning, these were the matchups Marmol wanted.

Harper and Schwarber have been 鈥渙ut of their minds鈥� against lefties this season, Marmol said, so he wanted to counter with the right-hander who can throw a bit of everything and has held left-handed batters to a .077 average and .192 slugging percentage.

Leahy has a starter鈥檚 mix in a reliever鈥檚 window.

鈥淎 lot of relievers only have two pitches, and it鈥檚 really the starters who have the whole kitchen sink,鈥� Winn said. 鈥淚f you have a reliever coming in with a bunch of different pitches, it鈥檚 hard. One guy one day could be throwing all curveballs and the next throwing all cutters.鈥�

Leahy landed five different pitches, got at least one swing and missed four of them. He threw 11 four-seam fastballs, and the Phillies did not put one of them in play. That鈥檚 partially because he fed them a dozen sliders, and they also had the sinker to at least acknowledge as a pitch they might see. Leahy also had as many swings and misses on the curveball as he had balls put in play on it.

To end the seventh, Leahy fell behind 2-0 to Harper.

The right-hander then coaxed a swing from Harper on a 91.6 mph slider and then dropped a 91.1 mph change-up to give a similar look with a wildly different movement. On the 2-2 pitch, Leahy froze Harper with an 89.7 mph slider stayed in the zone without veering into his shins. He said later that he gained a 鈥済ut feeling鈥� about the finishing pitch and got that from 鈥渏ust reading the hitters and knowing to use all of the pitches I do have.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know a lot of guys who are coming out of the bullpen with a feel for all the things that he鈥檚 coming in with,鈥� Liberatore said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really count anything out in any count. And now he鈥檚 throwing that sinker with the four-seam. It鈥檚 special to watch what he鈥檚 doing right now.鈥�

鈥淭his is what I wake up for,鈥� Leahy said.

The kid from Boulder, Colorado, pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, but it only ended that way with help from Romero and the assignment for him orchestrated for him by the moves of the sixth inning.

When Romero entered with two on, two outs and a one-run lead thanks to Winn鈥檚 homer, the Phillies had spent their bench and were likely stuck with three left-handed batters to go against the former Philadelphia reliever.

It didn鈥檛 get that far.

Romero got a flyout from Bryson Stott so that the Phillies infielder entered the sixth and flew out twice as part of the Cardinals鈥� 3 2/3 scoreless innings from the bullpen.

The timing of Winn鈥檚 homer rewarded Leahy and came as a tidy contrast to the matchups the Cardinals rigged vs. the one Winn scored.

Winn slugged .500 against lefties last season, and nine of his 15 homers came against left-handed pitching. This season, he鈥檚 hit as well off lefties as lefties have hit off Leahy 鈥� a .077 average to go with a .077 slugging percentage. Still, Winn has insisted that he sees the pitches well from lefties, and he repeated that description Monday night.

Strahm had not allowed a home run in any of his previous 15 2/3 innings this season. Winn studied how the lefty reliever pitched to right-hander Jose Barrero and set his approach accordingly.

鈥淚 was just sitting dead-read (for) something up in the zone,鈥� he said. 鈥淭ook a hack. Probably doesn鈥檛 get out of Busch. Here the ball flies, so I鈥檓 glad I hit it here.鈥�

Winn hit a 91.4 mph elevated fastball from the lefty.

He had an edge.

Matchups matter.

They helped two relievers get out of two jams to add up to the obvious.

鈥淭onight it means we won the game,鈥� Liberatore said. 鈥淭hose two innings don鈥檛 go the way that they did 鈥� obviously, I trust in our lineup and our ability to punch back when we get hit. But who knows what that game looks like. We had to scratch and claw for every run that we scored. To have guys who come in and you put your faith in to shut the door, that鈥檚 huge.鈥�