World Champion Cards edge Double-A Birds 3-2
21.05.12
Springfield, MO - The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals returned to the state of Missouri for the first time since their seven game series win against the Texas Rangers . But it wasn't at Busch Stadium; Hammons Field in Springfield was the spot and fans came out in full force to show their support for the champs.
The crowd of 10,079, the third largest in Hammons Field history and biggest since 2006, were starved for offense early as both starting pitchers, Tyler Lyons for Springfield and Trevor Rosenthal who are scheduled to both be in the Springfield rotation, each threw four scoreless innings. Lyons matched Rosenthal's four strikeouts and allowed just one hit. Rosenthal threw four perfect innings.
After a scoreless inning from Sam Freeman out of the Springfield bullpen, St. Louis plated two runs against reliever Eric Fornataro. Vance Albitz led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Matt Carpenter. With runners at second and third, Tony Cruz grounded out to second scoring Albitz and Erik Komatsu followed with an RBI sacrifice fly to give the "Big Birds" a 2-0 lead.
Source: KY3