PHOENIX — Not even a seven-run lead was enough for the St. Louis Cardinals to overcome a few charitable walks, Nolan Arenado and their own ragged play in the late innings.

The erosion of their lead and their play started slow, and then it was over quickly, suddenly and completely. The Arizona Diamondbacks scored eight unanswered runs to upend the Cardinals and win 8-7 in the 10th inning. The seven-run comeback ties the biggest in Arizona franchise history, and it is the first time since July 2010 that the Cardinals have lost a game after leading by as many as seven runs.

Arenado tied the game with a two-run homer in the eighth inning, and the Diamondbacks slithered their way to that point with help from a bases-loaded walk. There was also a misplay in left that led to an in-the-park homer and then biggest mistake of them all: In the top of the 10th, Jordan Walker’s soft liner to shortstop became a double play when pinch runner Bryan Torres strayed from first base and was easily thrown out.

That unplugged the Cardinals’ chances in the top of the inning.

Max Kepler delivered with an RBI double in the bottom of the 10th for the walk-off win and the series victory that tied both teams at 51 wins for the season.

In the bottom of the ninth, rookie Luis Gastelum was pressed into a tie game on the road — and he excelled. Gastelum struck out two and got a ground out fielded by the catcher to freeze the score, 7-7. He did not face Corbin Carroll, who homered off the rookie Friday, because Carroll was lifted for a pinch hitter after apparently being injured. Kepler’s double came off Gastelum’s change-up with the extra innings’ spontaneously generated runner at second.

That lost the game.

What cost the game happened over the final innings.

For five innings, the Cardinals were in complete control of the game. They had a hearty 7-0 lead after the top of the fifth, and third baseman Blaze Jordan had three RBIs. Lars Nootbaar had walked three times by that point, and the Diamondbacks had yet to produce their third base runner or reach third safely.

Starter Andre Pallante worked briskly.

He did not allow a ball out of the infield until the ninth batter he faced, and the Diamondbacks’ first hit didn’t come until a double in the fourth inning. Their second hit was quickly erased on a double play. Through five innings, Pallante had allowed two hits but had faced only one over the minimum with 15 outs from 16 batters.

The entire nature of the game flipped in its second half.

Arenado did the heaviest of the lifting.

’Nado's No. 1,999 ties game

On the brink of 2,000 hits for his career, Arenado was hitless in the game despite one of the best opportunities to cleave into the Cardinals’ big lead.

The veteran and 10-time Gold Glove winner had grounded out with the bases loaded in the sixth to maroon three teammates on base and leave Arizona four runs behind. That deficit was down to two because of Geraldo Perdomo’s in-the-park home run in the seventh. Perdomo’s liner to left got past Jose Fermin and tumbled around the wall long enough to round the bases. Initially ruled an error on Fermin, the call was reconsidered, and Perdomo was given the in-the-park homer that cut the Cardinals’ lead in half.

The D-Backs bullpen held the Cardinals so that when the game found Arenado, batting seventh, he had a second chance to tie the game with one swing.

No. 1,999 for No 28 did.

Arenado’s 1,999th career hit bolted into the left-field seats for a two-run, two-out homer. It was the second time in as many games that their former third baseman had bruised the Cardinals with a two-out, two-run hit. This one gave him 13 homers for the season.

Cards chase All-Star early, emphatically

One of the many first-time All-Stars at this past week’s “Midsummer Classic” in Philadelphia, Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez brought a 2.29 ERA out of the break and has been one of the best left-handers in the National League this season. The Cardinals rearranged their lineup to face him by starting Fermin in center field to get another right-handed bat, Nelson Velazquez, in the lineup, and then hit Fermin just ahead of left-handed batter Nootbaar.

All the better to avoid more looks against the lefty Rodriguez.

Turns out, it would only take one.

Nootbaar worked a leadoff walk against Rodriguez to start the third inning, and what followed was a five-run outburst that the Arizona lefty did not see the end of.

Nootbaar was the first of five consecutive Cardinals to reach base in the top of the third inning. Nootbaar scored on Jordan’s RBI triple for the game’s first run. Then came the flurry of more base hits. JJ Wetherholt singled to score Jordan, Ivan Herrera singled to move Wetherholt into scoring position and Walker doubled him home. By the time the Diamondbacks let Rodriguez stay in the inning to face Burleson, the Cardinals had a 3-0 lead.

Burleson made it 5-0 with his two-run single to center.

By the time Fermin chased Rodriguez from the game so that he didn’t face Nootbaar for a second plate appearance, the Cardinals had scored the most runs allowed by the lefty this season, and they did it all in one inning. Rodriguez tied for his shortest start of the season by allowing the five runs on seven hits through 2 2/3 innings.

The Cardinals sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning, and when Jordan flew out to end the inning, the bases were loaded.

That mattered even more later.

Jordan makes up for that miss

It had been a week since Jordan saw the field, eight days since his most recent at-bat, nine since he connected for an extra-base hit.

The lack of playing time before and immediately after the All-Star break didn’t seem to slow him much Sunday.

The Cardinals corner infielder flew out with the bases loaded, but bookended around that miss was the RBI triple and a two-run single that proved increasingly vital as the game got older. True to the theme of the game, walks led to trouble. That was true for Rodriguez. That was true for the Cardinals (see below). That was definitely true ahead of Jordan in the fifth.

Two walks from reliever Drey Jameson loaded the bases ahead of Jordan. There were two outs when the inning reached him, and the Diamondbacks had a chance of slipping free without allowing the Cardinals to increase their 5-0 lead. Arizona turned to reliever Philip Abner.

In the week leading up to the break, Jordan had his playing time at third base reduced as Fermin played there more often. Both he and Fermin had made errors at third that proved costly during a recent road trip, but Fermin had been more productive at the plate and that was the tiebreaker for more playing time. With Fermin in center, third opened Sunday for Jordan’s first start there since the break. He capitalized.

Abner challenged Jordan in the zone. The lefty got ahead 0-2 on two called strikes. Jordan then fouled off three consecutive pitches before getting a 90.7 mph fastball over the plate.

Jordan stung it for a single that scored two and lifted the Cardinals to 7-5 lead.

That hit is why Arenado’s homer only tied the game.

Cards nearly stumble on walks

For five innings against Pallante, the Diamondbacks lineup offered little resistance.

And then it got some help from the Cardinals.

In the sixth inning, Arizona cobbled together three runs, and two of them scored on bases-loaded walks issued by a Cardinals pitcher. The Cardinals as a team walked three batters during the inning to not only produce runs but load the bases for the D-Backs in the first place. The first four batters of the inning reached base against Pallante, but it wasn’t until he walked No. 2 hitter Perdomo that Arizona even had a fleeting chance to chomping into what had been a 7-0 lead for the Cardinals.

Ketel Marte singled home the first run of the game against Pallante, and then Perdomo walked to load the bases for the middle of the order.

Pallante retired Carroll to remain in the game.

He walked home a run to usher himself out of it.

The walk to cleanup hitter Gabriel Moreno forced home No. 9 hitter Ryan Waldschmidt and moved the inning ever closer to former Cardinals third baseman Arenado. Cardinals veteran reliever Ryne Stanek entered with the bases loaded and got a popup for the second out of the inning. When he walked Tyler Locklear to force home another run, Arizona had the tying run up at the plate.

Arenado stood there with 1,998 career hits.

He’s on the verge of becoming the sixth active player with at least 2,000 hits and only the second third baseman in that group. Arenado had two hits in Saturday’s game for the Diamondbacks, and his two-run double was the decisive hit against his former team. In the sixth inning Sunday, he had a chance to tie with one swing a game Arizona once trailed by a touchdown and an extra point.

Stanek challenged him with back-to-back 88 mph sliders.

Arenado pulled the second one on the ground toward third base, where Jordan backhanded it for the out to end the inning and the threat.

____

©2026 STLtoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.