Before rookie Lane Thomas’s pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning, the Cardinals had seven hits, 10 total baserunners, and recurring chances to erase the A’s early 5-0 lead. They pushed A’s starter Mike Fiers to 94 pitches through 5 2/3 innings, and the sixth inning ended with the tying run at the plate. The Cardinals had only two innings where they failed to get a runner on base, and it took former Cardinal Stephen Piscotty making a catch at the right field wall in the fifth to keep Matt Wieters from an extra-base hit in that inning. But all of the pitches the Cardinals saw and the baserunners they were able to get didn’t do much to change the lights on the scoreboard.
Cards fall from first as Hudson has short start against A's
