The St. Louis Cardinals (27-23) came up short in a battle of the bullpens on Wednesday afternoon, falling 5-1 to the Detroit Tigers (33-17) in the series finale at Busch Stadium. Both teams leaned heavily on their relief corps, using at least five pitchers each. The loss marks the first time St. Louis has dropped back-to-back games since May 2, as Detroit sealed the series with wins in the final two matchups.
Starting Pitchers
STL: Andre Pallante (4-3, 4.18 ERA) – 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 K, 4 BB
DET: Brant Hurter (1-0, 2.08 ERA) – 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 K, 1 BB
Scoring Summary
2nd Inning
Riley Greene singled, moved to third on Spencer Torkelson’s single and scored on a Colt Keith RBI groundout to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
4th Inning
Greene walked and scored from first on Torkelson’s RBI double to right field, doubling the lead.
6th Inning
Greene drew another walk and came around to score again, this time on Dillon Dingler’s RBI single following a walk to Torkelson.
In the bottom half, Victor Scott II led off with a single, advanced on a Brendan Donovan flyout and scored on a Willson Contreras RBI single to cut the deficit 3-1.
Contreras goes up the middle to drive home Vic! pic.twitter.com/f3COVCCMty
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 21, 2025
8th Inning
Chris Roycroft allowed a leadoff walk and a double with both runners coming around to score. The first scored via Trey Sweeney's sac fly and the other on a Javier Báez RBI single to seal the Tigers 5-1 victory.
Stats & Notes
This marks the first time the Cardinals have lost consecutive home games since the first week of the season. It is also the first series loss for the Birds since they faced the Braves in late April.
St. Louis managed just five hits against six Detroit pitchers, leaving five on base and going 1-for-6 with RISP.
Pallante suffered his first home loss since September 2024.
Betting Recap
Tigers ML (-102) cashed and the total score stayed UNDER 8.5 (-105). Eric Sontag’s Iván Herrera prop fell short as he went hitless.
On Deck
The Cardinals are off Thursday before beginning a weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Miles Mikolas is slated to start Friday night with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. CT at Busch Stadium.
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Cards Hub Postgame: St. Louis Cardinals fall to Tigers. Lose series.