Another day, another walk off for the Cardinals. The club defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in dramatic fashion once again as Kolten Wong’s home run in the bottom of the 14th inning swept the Pirates out St. Louis Sunday afternoon.

Wong wasn’t even in the starting lineup for Sunday’s series finale, as Pete Kozma drew the start at second. But when Matt Carpenter left the game after the seventh inning due to light-headedness (after hitting his 4th homer of the season in the fourth), Kozma shifted to third and Wong came into the game, picking up 3 hits including the game-winning shot to right field before all was said and done.

Brian Stull of St. Louis Baseball Weekly spoke with Wong after the game:

‘I wasn’t looking to hit a single in that at-bat,” smiled Kolten Wong, who delivered a 421-foot homer into the right field seats for the win. “Anytime you can hit a walk-off home run it’s special, but to do it in the fashion we did–three in a row, it’s definitely something big for us. Especially against a team like the Pirates.”

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Game notes:

• Miguel Socolovich, who made his major league debut Sunday, pitched a scoreless 14th inning for the victory Sunday. He was the Cardinals’  eighth pitcher of the game, following starter Michael Wacha (6.2 innings), Randy Choate (0.1), Matt Belisle (0.2), Kevin Siegrist (0.1), Trevor Rosenthal (1.0), Mitch Harris (2.0), and Sam Tuivailala (2.0).
• Peter Bourjos, who is 6 for his last 12, singled home the tying run in the bottom of the 12th after Pedro Alvarez took Tuivailala deep in the top of the inning.
• As Rob Rains of STL Sports Page noted, this was Kolten Wong’s second career regular season walk off home run, and the other also came against the Pirates, on July 8th of last year.
•  Achievements: The last time the Cardinals had 3 consecutive walk off wins – September 1-3, 2000 vs NY. The last time the club had 3 consecutive extra inning walk off victories – July 8-10, 1987. The team now also has four consecutive walk off wins against Pittsburgh. The last (and only) only time they did that to a team – 1938 vs Philadelphia.

Game Recaps: STL Today, Cardinals.com, St. Louis Baseball Weekly, theScore

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Carpenter okay after exiting with dizziness

After exiting Sunday’s series finale after seven innnings due to lightheadedness, Cardinals third baseman told Brian Stull of St. Louis Baseball Weekly he’s confident that he’ll be ready to play when the Cardinals begin a four-game series with the Cubs on Monday:

“I’m good, just got a little lightheaded–I think I got just a little dehydrated,” said Carpenter after the game. “I don’t feel right, but I’m good now. For whatever reason, something snuck up on me. I got lightheaded and dizzy, felt dehydrated. I don’t know what it was but I’ll be fine, I’m good to go.”

The third baseman was forced to watch the extra innings walk-off victory from the clubhouse as he received IV’s and fluids.

Read more: STL Baseball Weekly

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Walden to DL with biceps injury, Tuivailala recalled

The Cardinals will be without setup man Jordan Walden for an unknown amount of time, as the team placed the right-hander on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with right biceps inflammation after he experienced discomfort in his throwing shoulder while warming up for Saturday’s game. On KMOX’s Sports on a Sunday, general manager John Mozeliak said the club is “not overly” concerned abut Walden’s health status, and that he could likely have avoided the DL if the team was willing to go short for a while. Mozeliak noted that the move is retroactive to April 30, meaning Walden will be eligible to return in just 11 days.

The 27-year-old is the owner of a spectacular 0.87 ERA over 12 appearances.

Meanwhile, the club called up 22-year-old right-hander Sam Tuivailala, who has thrown nine scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts over eight appearances as the AAA Memphis closer. He appeared in two games for the Cardinals last September.

Read more: Cardinals.com, St. Louis Baseball Weekly

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Lyons gets next shot filling in for Waino Tuesday

Both GM John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny announced Sunday morning that left-hander Tyer Lyons will be recalled from AAA Memphis to make the start Tuesday against the Cubs as the Cardinals continue to search for answers for Adam Wainwright’s vacated spot in the club’s rotation.

From Brian Stull of St. Louis Baseball Today:

“Tyler’s made a couple of nice starts in Memphis and seems to be throwing the ball extremely well,” explained Matheny. “We have a pretty good idea of what he can do–it’s just the consistency of holding it through a game, holding it from start to start. Part of that is just a young player and hopefully he’s making those moves in the right direction.”

Lyons is 2-1 with a 2.91 ERA and 26 strikeouts over 21 2/3 innings so far this season at Memphis (AAA).

Read more: Hardball Talk

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In the Division: Brewers fire manager Ron Roenicke after 4+ seasons following 7-18 start to season

Following a 7-18 start to the season, the Milwaukee Brewers announced Sunday night that they’ve fired manager Ron Roenicke after just over four seasons at the helm.

Roenicke relieved of managerial duties: pic.twitter.com/MKPngn9ykO

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 4, 2015

As stated, the Brewers posted a 342-331 overall record during Roenicke’s time as manager. He led the Brewers to a NL Central division championship in 2011, and the team also had winning records in 2012 and 2014. However, the club collapsed badly down the stretch last season and started this year off 7-18, leading to much speculation that a major shakeup could be coming.

The team will announce their new manager at a 10:30am press conference Monday morning, and multiple reports indicate that former Brewer Craig Counsell is the favorite for the job.

UPDATE: Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports Counsell has gotten the job. We’ll find out for sure Monday morning.

Read more: MLB Trade Rumors, theScore

 

Feature image used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison. No changes made. Image licence.