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Jose Fermín's Throwing Error Proves Costly to Cardinals, Ruins Jordan Walker's HR
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- Jose Fermín's Throwing Error Proves Costly to Cardinals, Ruins Jordan Walker's HR
Roundtable Sports' John Denton analyzes the reasons why the Cardinals lost to the Cubs 6-4 on Sunday and were unable to close out a sweep at Wrigley Field.
In many ways, José Fermín has been one of the reasons the Cardinals have been MLB's biggest surprise team of 2026 with the platescrappiness and the positional versatility he has offered the squad all season.
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A starter at third base on Sunday in place of thestruggling Blaze Jordan, Fermín has played every position for the Cardinalsthis season other than catcher or pitcher. He's appeared in 20 games in leftfield, 11 in center field, two in right, 13 at third, two at second, three atshortstop, one at first base and he even got one start at designated hitter. Inthe 79 defensive chances Fermín had on the season, he had committed just one defensivemiscue. while also hitting .267 with eight doubles, three homers and 16 RBI.
However, the 24-year-old utility fielder's second error of the season proved to be an especially costly one on Sunday.
Fermín fielded a seemingly routine inning-ending doubleplay ball at third base, but his side-armed throw tailed away from JJ Wetherholtand trickled into right field. That error paved the way for three more runsthat allowed the Cubs to beat the Cardinals 6-4 in the series finale at WrigleyField.
Newly minted All-Star Jordan Walker hit a three-run,go-ahead homer half-way up the bleachers in left field to briefly give theCardinals a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning. Walker's 20th home run allowedhim to join Albert Pujols (32 homers and 10 stolen bases in 2009) as the onlyCardinals players with at least 20 homers and 10 stolen bases prior to the MLBAll-Star Game. (Walker has stolen 11 bases in 16 tries this season.)
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Cardinals' lefty Matthew Liberatore saw a second straightvictory slip through his fingers when he walked catcher Carson Kelly to open thesixth inning. A Michael Busch single moved Kelly to third and a Nico Hoerner single off reliever Matt Svanson knotted the score. Then, following an Ian Happpopup, Fermín misfired to second on what would have most likely been an inning-endingdouble play. Busch and Hoerner scored and Swanson scored when Fermín couldn'tknock down Walker's throw from right field.
Cards still dominated the series
The Cardinals won the first two games of the series indecidedly different kinds of ways. On Friday, they pounded out 17 hits andthree homers for a 17-1 victory that proved to be the third-most lopsidedresult in the 135-year history of the storied rivalry. On Saturday, playingafter a rain delay and through a fog delay, the Cards used a leadoff homer fromJJ Wetherholt and RBI singles from Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson for a 3-0win.
Those Cardinals victories broke a five-game winning streakfor the Cubs, who hit eight homers in their series finale in a 23-3 victoryover the Padres. Andre Pallante and Kyle Leahy not only shut out the Cubs over10 innings, but they kept them in the park at Wrigley Field. The Cubs did not homer in the three-game series.
Up next for the Cardinals will be a grueling four-day,five-game stretch against the National League Central-leading Brewers . TheCards will be shuffling their pitching rotation for that series with veteranright-hander Dustin May starting on Monday and Michael McGreevy pitching one ofthe two games on Tuesday. Triple-A left-hander Brycen Mautz , who made his MLBdebut earlier this season against the Brewers, was pulled from his Memphisstart after 44 pitches on Sunday and is an option to be the Cardinals' 27player for the doubleheader.
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