PITTSBURGH • While Cardinals manager Mike Matheny suggested there will be a time when baseball assigns “less value to the save,” he still respects the importance that stat has to his relievers and, in the past, has held back from using Trevor Rosenthal in a tie game on the road.
Not so Tuesday.
In a move inspired by Rosenthal’s need to pitch and, perhaps, a new approach, Matheny turned to his closer for the ninth inning of a tie game on the road. Only once previously in Rosenthal’s two years as closer had he entered a game to start a ninth inning on the road with a tie score.