Alejandro Kirk's winning hit in 11th inning pushes Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

TORONTO (AP) — Alejandro Kirk drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded single in the 11th inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series.

After the Cardinals intentionally walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to begin the 11th, Leo Jiménez advanced both Guerrero and automatic runner Nathan Lukes with a bunt single.

Will Wagner grounded into a fielder’s choice before Kirk won it with a single to deep left over the drawn-in outfield off right-hander Ryan Fernandez (1-5). It was the first game-winning hit of Kirk’s career.

“You’re back there as a catcher for 11 innings, and you’re grinding,” manager John Schneider said of Kirk. “It’s great for him.”

Erik Swanson (2-2) worked a scoreless inning for the win as Toronto improved to 3-7 in September. The Blue Jays won in their final at bat for the fifth time.

Cardinals rookie infielder Thomas Saggese hit his first career home run, a tying solo shot in the eighth. Saggese got his first hit and first RBI in Thursday’s win over Cincinnati.

“We lost, so I’m kind of more thinking about that, but pretty cool to do it in that moment to tie the game right there,” Saggese said.

St. Louis came in 9-3 this season against AL East opponents. The Cardinals haven’t lost a series to an AL East team since losing two of three at Boston in June 2022.

“You don’t deserve to win when you go 2 for 19 with runners in scoring position,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s tough to do it.”

The first four Cardinals batters of the game all had singles off Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman, with Nolan Arenado’s bloop hit to center driving home the game’s first run.

A second run scored on Saggese’s fielder’s choice, but Arenado was forced out at second on a quick throw from right fielder Addison Barger.

“That was huge,” an appreciative Gausman said. “Not much was going my way that inning, to kind of steal an out there was huge. That’s what (Barger) can do with his arm out there. He can throw 100 from the outfield. Whereas most guys probably wouldn’t even think about making that throw, he came up gunning.”

Toronto responded with a three-run fourth against righty Erick Fedde. Guerrero hit an RBI double, Spencer Horwitz followed with a sacrifice fly, and Kirk drove in Guerrero with a two-out single.

“When you get the lead early you want to keep it,” Fedde said. “Unfortunately I didn’t do that.”

Saggese tied it by connecting off left-hander Génesis Cabrera in the eighth.

“He was great today and he’s been a really good addition to the team so far,” Fedde said of Saggese.

The Cardinals put runners at second and third with two outs in the fourth but Gausman escaped by catching Michael Siani’s line drive back to the mound.

Gausman allowed two runs and nine hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out three.

Guerrero started at third base and made a fine defensive play in the seventh, diving to snare Paul Goldschmidt’s hard grounder and tagging out Masyn Winn, who had strayed off the bag.

Guerrero moved to first in the ninth and ended the inning by making a diving play on Arenado’s grounder and throwing to pitcher Tommy Nance for the out, stranding a runner at second.

“He was kind of on a full display today,” Schneider said. “Those plays were obviously huge for us.”

Fedde was charged with three runs and six hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out three.

Blue Jays RHP José Berríos (15-9, 3.52 ERA) is scheduled to start Saturday against Cardinals RHP Kyle Gibson (8-6, 4.20).

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