By Matthew T.F. Harrington
AP photo: Yonder Alonso center is congratulated by Danny Valencia left after hitting a solo homer in the second inning at Busch Stadium against the St Louis Cards the run accounted for the A’s only score on Friday night
The Oakland Athletics fell to the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 Friday night at Busch Stadium, falling on the short end of a pitchers’ duel. Rookie Luke Weaver held the A’s to one run on four hits for his first professional win while Ross Detwiler allowed three runs over 5 1/3 innings of work. Yonder Alonso hit a solo homerun for the A’s.
Detwiler (1-3, 5.74 ERA) opened the game with a single to leadoff man Matt Carpenter before yielding a two-run homer to Jedd Gyorko with no outs. He’d also allow a sacrifice fly to Jhonny Peralta in the bottom of the sixth, but the homer would be all the Cards (68-59) would need to back their rookie starter.
Weaver (1-1, 3.60) pitched six innings, punching out seven A’s while only walking two. He yielded only four hits, one of which being Alonso’s seventh homer of the year in the top of the second. He was otherwise sterling in his first victory at the major league level. The Cardinals bullpen pitched three scoreless frames of relief capped by Seung Hwan Oh picking up his 13th save of the year.
The A’s (55-73) turn to Zach Neal in Saturday’s contest looking to get a strong start out of the longman turned starter. Neal has allowed nine runs over his last two starts. Alex Reyes will take the hill for the Cardinals who look to hold on to the final National League Wild Card slot.
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