Busch Stadium: 7/20/08
Cardinals vs Padres
Cards rookie lefthander Jaime Garcia was effective in his first major league start, although he only went 5 innings. After a shaky first inning, Padres starter Cha Seung Baek held the Cardinals bats in check and was in line for the win when he left the game in the 7th. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th with 2 on and 2 out, Troy Glaus continued his red hot July by uncorking a 3-run blast into the left field bleachers. LaRussa called Isringhausen’s number in the 9th and after retiring the first batter and getting ahead on the 2nd, Izzy surrendered 3 consecutive hits before being pulled for Brad Thompson with the tying run 90 feet away from home plate. Thompson promptly gave up a game tying double that put the go ahead run on 3rd with 1 out, yet managed to escape the jam thanks to some heads up defense from Albert Pujols. Pujols was intentionally walked in the bottom half of the inning then advanced to 3rd when a pickoff attempt went awry. The Padres mysteriously elected to intentionally walk both pinch hitter Yadier Molina and Skip Schumaker to load the bases for Aaron Miles, who sent the Busch faithful into a frenzy by knocking a 2-1 pitch over the right field fence for a walk off grand slam.