September 28 – Lars Nootbaar hits a home run, a triple and a triple to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6–3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, the first game of this season’s three-game series.
Mackin Wynn scored another two points for St. Louis (82-78), which won for the 16th time in the past 17 seasons.
Now guaranteed a winless season, the Giants (79-81) got a two-run home run from Gerard Encarnacion, his fifth in the game, in the second after Mike Yastrzemski hit a three-RBI double to give the home team a 3-0 lead.
Nootbaar’s 12th homer in the third inning cut the deficit in half, and the Cardinals took the lead for good with four runs in the fourth inning.
Winn tied the game with one out, Alec Burleson gave up a single by Winn to give St. Louis the lead, and Nolan Arenado’s ground-rule double ended Landen Raup’s night, Nootbaar tripling on a single to center field.
Ropp (1-2) allowed six runs and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. He allowed two walks and struck out four.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas (10-11) allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings, striking out four and giving up a walk.
John King, Andrew Kittredge, Matthew Liberatore and Ryan Helsley recorded the final 12 outs. Helsley gave up a hit and struck out two in the ninth inning for his 49th save.
Arenado had two doubles and two singles for the Cardinals, who have won five of their last six games. Jordan Walker added a double and a single and Ivan Herrera added two singles.
Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto and Brett Wisely each had two hits for the Giants, who haven’t won since 2021.
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