By Katie Woo New York Times
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ST. LOUIS — With the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers tied at 1 and heading to the bottom of the ninth inning, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol retreated down the home dugout tunnel to find his third baseman.

Nolan Arenado, who was originally scheduled for a rest day Saturday and was not in the starting lineup, was in the batting cages, preparing to take a pinch hit at-bat if needed. Marmol approached him with a pressing question.

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“Do you want to end the game?” the skipper asked.

“Yes,” Arenado replied.

And so he did. With runners on the corners and nobody out, the Cardinals pinch hit Arenado for Victor Scott II. The Dodgers responded by pulling in left-fielder Kiké Hernández, opting to use a five-man infield to protect against a groundball pull-side. Arenado’s solution? He lofted Ben Casparius’ 1-1 sweeper high to an empty left field for a walk-off ground-rule double. The Cardinals beat the Dodgers 2-1.

“That was a really good game,” Marmol beamed. “It’s just a combination of talent and grit. Man, this group gets after it. They love competition.”

Saturday’s victory indeed served as the latest example of how the Cardinals generate their scrappy style of baseball into wins. Arenado’s at-bat ultimately decided the game, but St. Louis had multiple key plate appearances that embodied the relentless, gritty approach that has propelled it to a 36-28 record. Let’s break down three key plays that led to another thriller at Busch Stadium.

Winn dashes home on an errant throw to first

The Cardinals had zero answers for Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who stymied them for six scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out nine. Erick Fedde held his own as well, posting 5 1/3 scoreless innings before giving way to Steven Matz, who mowed down the three-headed monster of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman during his 1 2/3 innings.

Deadlocked in a scoreless tie after 7 1/2 innings, the Cardinals finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth thanks to Masyn Winn. Winn laced a one-out single to right off Casparius and advanced to second on Brendan Donovan’s base hit. Willson Contreras flied out for the second out, which left the Cardinals’ most promising scoring opportunity in the hands of Alec Burleson.

Burleson delivered, drilling a comebacker that ricocheted off Casparius. With two outs, Winn and Donovan were running on contact. Casparius was able to knock the ball down and throw to first, but his throw sailed up the line. Winn, with the help of third-base coach Pop Warner, read the play all the way and raced for home when he saw Casparius’ throw go wide — and just beat Freeman’s throw to the plate.

“I was really just reading the throw,” Winn said. “Honestly, when (Casparius) first threw it, I saw it going left. I thought it was going to end up in right field. I didn’t expect (Freeman) to get it, but at that point, I was too far off the base, so I had to keep going.

“I definitely always try to think about scoring when I’m on second like that. Bad throw, bad pick or something like that, I can get in there. … When I saw that throw, I felt it was a good chance to get in there.”

The play was the latest example of the Cardinals’ budding shortstop learning to trust his skill set.

“Pure athleticism and zero fear,” Marmol said. “That’s what you want out of a young guy. If they’re going to make mistakes, I’d rather it be on the aggressive side. But (Winn) is an incredible athlete, and he does not scare, and that’s every bit of that play.”

Gorman’s leadoff ground-rule double in the ninth

Winn’s mad dash for home gave the Cardinals the lead and the momentum heading into the top of the ninth, and St. Louis felt confident about wrapping up the win with closer Ryan Helsley on the mound. But there’s a reason the Dodgers are, well, the Dodgers.

A couple of bad breaks spurned Helsley. After striking out Hyeseong Kim for the first out, Ohtani connected on a soft groundball up the middle, which clanged off second base for a hit. Ohtani came around to tie the score on a strikeout of Freeman. Helsley’s strike-three slider bounced in the dirt, and though it was ruled a wild pitch, the usually sturdy Pedro Pagés was clearly perturbed he didn’t block the ball. Helsley finished the frame by striking out Will Smith for his third punchout of the inning, but the damage was done.

It took one pitch for the Cardinals to respond.

Nolan Gorman ambushed Casparius’ first-pitch challenge fastball and roped it to right field for a ground-rule double. The ball left Gorman’s bat with an exit velocity of 111.6 mph, his hardest-hit ball of the season.

“Just tried to jump on the first pitch,” Gorman said. “They had been throwing me heaters throughout the game, not many curveballs. I was ready to jump on it.”

“It’s nice to just put the ball on the barrel and get results,” he added. “It’s definitely something to build some confidence off of and continue to go.”

Gorman’s playing time (or lack thereof) has been a hot topic over the past month, but with Jordan Walker on the injured list and the Cardinals in a stretch of 28 games in 29 days, Marmol believes there will be a way to work Gorman into the starting lineup more consistently. Gorman has been working on some mechanical changes — namely, cutting down his front stride and staying in a more balanced landing position. He’s hopeful it will lead to better production, and he is 6-for-14 in his last six games. His clutch hit Saturday was a strong step in the right direction.

Pagés gets the sac bunt down — with two strikes

After leading off the ninth with his double, Gorman was lifted for pinch runner Jose Barrero. Knowing Arenado was going to take the following at-bat, the goal was to advance Barrero to third.

Enter Pagés, who at the end of the top of the ninth was still noticeably frustrated about the muffed strikeout pitch.

“I take a lot of pride in my defense, so when that happened, I was obviously mad, and I think I showed it on the bench a little bit,” Pagés said. “But at the end of the day, I needed to go out there, put my helmet on and do whatever I can in the situation.”

Pagés picked up the bunt sign and cleared his head. He took a first-pitch sweeper for ball one, then took another sweeper for strike two. He fouled off his first bunt attempt and found himself in an unfavorable 1-2 count. But he knew he had to get the bunt down, and that’s what he did on a high sweeper just off the plate. Pagés tapped a slow roller back to Casparius, who rushed the throw and pulled Freeman off the bag. Barrero was safe at third, and Pagés was safe at first, setting the table for Arenado’s heroics.

“When I got to two strikes, I was like, ‘Uh oh,’” Pagés said, laughing. “But I was able to still get the job done, thankfully.”

Though the bunt play was important, Marmol was more impressed by how Pagés was able to shake off the half-inning prior.

“It’s easy to come into the dugout and be in your own head and not focus on what’s next,” Marmol said. “But for him to go back out there, two strikes and get the bunt down, that’s the game.”

The Cardinals have capitalized on the small things all season. They’ve prided themselves on their relentless approach and ability to score in a multitude of ways. Saturday’s performance, which locked up a series victory over the reigning World Series champions, was just the latest example of that, and it led to one of their most impressive wins yet.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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