WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Down to their final strike in the final inning of the final game of this challenging Golden State road trip, the Cardinals took a bruise to then deliver one.

JJ Wetherholt was hit by a breaking ball with two strikes and two outs in the ninth inning while trailing the Athletics by a run. Wetherholt grinding through and then staying in that at-bat put in motion a rally that rewarded the Cardinals' work in the past week with a winning road trip.

Hit by the pitch, Wetherholt took first to nudge the tying run into scoring position.

Ivan Herrera and Jordan Walker followed with a single and a double, respectively, to tie the game and then take a lead on the way to a nail-biter 5-4 victory Thursday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, the A’s temporary home. All the Cardinals had to do to secure the win was get through the top of the A’s order that had caused such havoc over the final two games of the series.

Closer Riley O’Brien hit the first batter he faced before blitzing through the next three A’s to hold the lead for his 13th save of the season. O’Brien struck out All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker with three consecutive sweeping sliders to end the game. Catcher Herrera challenged a ball call on the third pitch to Shea Langeliers and had it overturned for a key called Strike 3. That challenge was the 12th of the game. There were nine calls by home-plate umpire Felix Neon overturned.

The comeback won the series for the Cardinals and meant they went 4-3 on the road trip.

A pair of solo homers in the middle innings from Victor Scott II and Walker tied the game and then gave the Cardinals their first lead. Starter Michael McGreevy finished the sixth inning before he had thrown his 80th pitch, and it was the lead he carried through the bottom of the sixth that the relievers inherited for the seventh and misplaced.

Yohel Pozo sparked the ninth inning with a leadoff single, his third hit of the game. He was replaced by a pinch runner, Thomas Saggese, who then had a good view as Jack Perkins retired the next two Cardinals without either moving Saggese into scoring position.

Wetherholt took the hit to do that before the hits that followed.

A’s pounce on relief in 7th

With the hearty top of the Athletics order looming as a threat to the Cardinals' lead and JoJo Romero warming to face those hitters in the eighth, the bottom of the lineup sped up everything and got the game to them in the seventh.

It started like so much of the offense Thursday, with a solo homer.

Infielder Zack Gelof lifted a full-count pitch from Ryne Stanek over the left field wall to trim the Cardinals’ lead down to a run. Stanek, who had gone six consecutive appearances without allowing a run, then walked the No. 8 hitter, former batting champion Jeff McNeil. That walk drew Romero into the game an inning earlier than planned so that he would face Nick Kurtz if the inning got that far.

It did.

The A’s hit three consecutive singles against Romero to flip the game on the Cardinals. Each of the singles landed with frustration for the Cardinals. Kurtz hit a high fly ball to left field that left fielder Nathan Church took a roundabout route on, and when he lunged to make the catch, the ball bounced just before reaching Church’s glove. Rather than the second out of the inning, the Cardinals had to face one of the best hitters in the A’s lineup with the bases loaded.

Right-handed batter Langeliers, who entered Thursday’s game batting .331, poked a single up the middle.

The ground ball threaded between infielders to score two and give the A’s a 4-3 lead.

Romero would regain a hold on the inning with a ground out before getting a line out to end the inning and strand three runners on base.

Wednesday’s game flipped on the Cardinals when the bottom of the A’s order reached base to give their best bats a whack at overtaking the Cardinals, and the seventh played out just the same. A two-run lead was lost in the burst of three runs that began at the bottom and was cashed in by the top.

McGreevy finds a groove to get through 6

The bullpen got involved after starter McGreevy needed only 74 pitches to complete six innings. Hard contact and slowing velocity contributed to the decision to remove the right-hander after six.

Looking to build off of one of his finest starts in the majors and a breakthrough of sorts with a swing-and-miss change-up, McGreevy’s start Thursday began rocky.

Kurtz hit his second career leadoff homer to give the A’s a quick lead.

The Athletics stung McGreevy for three hits in the first inning, but a double play kept the inning from unspooling after the homer. And McGreevy got better from there. He was helped often by his defense but also his mix of pitches. On back-to-back balls in the play in the sixth inning, Scott dashed back to the warning track to catch a fly ball, and then he raced in to catch the next one in shallow center. Langeliers went chasing after McGreevy’s 80.7-mph sweeping slider in the second inning for a strikeout.

How McGreevy pitched to Kurtz illustrated the inning to inning improvement for the right-hander. McGreevy strategically pitched around Kurtz in the third inning before striking out Langeliers. In the fifth, with two outs already and the bases empty, McGreevy fell behind 2-0 when Kurtz didn’t chase a pair of off-speed pitches. McGreevy had the base to give Kurtz but also executed pitches that got him back in the count. Kurtz looked a change-up for Strike 1. He swung at a 77.6-mph curve for Strike 2.

And then McGreevy froze him with a sinker to end the inning with his third and final strikeout of the game.

Scott slows skid, ties game

The Cardinal having the most difficult time offensively this season — especially when it comes to connecting the strides in practice with performance in games — is center fielder Scott.

His batting average entered Thursday’s game at .178, and it had been in steady decline throughout the road trip. He was hitless in eight at-bats coming into the game and caught in a 1-for-11 (.091) plunge with five strikeouts.

In his first plate appearance Thursday, he bunted to move runners over.

In his next, he generated a run on his own.

Scott pulled a solo home run over the right field fence to tie the game, 1-1, in the fifth inning. Scott’s second homer of the season gave him and the Cardinals a chance to take a deep breath. Before the game, manager Oli Marmol had talked about how well Scott had handled the “rut” mentally and how he just needed the work in the batting cage and preparation before the game to spill over into the game. And he’d get the starts to do that.

Scott had struck out twice and gone hitless in Wednesday night’s late loss, but he was back in the lineup and hitting ninth against the lefty Thursday.

The homer was the second of his career against a lefty.

Scott’s bolt broke through in a way the Cardinals had not in previous innings despite opportunities. A pair of walks in the fourth inning didn’t yield a run thanks to a sliding catch in right field by the A’s Carlos Cortes. Scott’s bunt in the third inning moved Pozo into scoring position, and Wetherholt followed with a walk to get the potential go-ahead run on base. The inning ended with a groundout.

The Cardinals would get another opportunity in the sixth and not miss it.

Walker, errors extend lead

The shot that broke the tie was another solo homer.

Walker led off the sixth inning with his 12th homer of the season. The ball landed in the Cardinals bullpen beyond the right field wall and vaulted the Cardinals to their first lead of the game. The ball traveled an estimated 381 feet.

A few innings earlier, Walker had casually reached over the right field wall to rob a home run. He didn’t have to leave his feet or reach that far to do so, but the catch was made beyond the wall to keep the A’s from scoring the second run that his homer just gave the Cardinals.

They would widen the lead with help from two errors.

Masyn Winn reached first when starter Jacob Lopez fired high to first base. Winn quickly turned to second, and he didn’t stop there when second baseman McNeil threw wildly into the infield for the second error. Winn got as far as third base on the series of mistakes by the A’s. He strolled home for a 3-1 lead on Nolan Gorman’s RBI flair to right field.

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