ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

CHICAGO — With several squandered opportunities left abandoned or dismantled behind them Thursday afternoon, the Cardinals kept creating them until they capitalized.

Willson Contreras continued his eventful road trip with a timely two-run homer that pierced the gusting-in wind and tied the first game of the Cardinals’ doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. But to take the lead, the Cardinals had to exploit an eighth-inning error and wild pitch in a way they didn’t earlier in the game, and they got one out away from missing this one too.

Pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo roped a two-out RBI single to left field that brought home the runner who reached on the error, Nolan Gorman.

That was the difference in a 5-4 win littered with potholes, missed chances, and three fly balls caught in the wind before they were caught near the wall.

Closer Ryan Helsley pitched a perfect ninth inning to secure his 14th save, and he got the final out just under the wire of a three-hour game. Contreras’ clutch homer in the eighth, Pozo’s pinch hit and Helsley’s finishing touch put the Cardinals in position to sweep the series with a win in Thursday evening’s conclusion of the doubleheader.

The Cardinals were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position in the game and the one hit was Pozo’s.

“There were some opportunities to score and break that game open a little early,� manager Oliver Marmol said. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to. I do like some of the swings we took. We weren’t rewarded for them, but still came out with a win.�

Cardinals starter Erick Fedde limited his former team to two runs in five innings, though his outing was complicated by the defense behind him. The Sox took the lead with Michael A. Taylor’s two-run homer in the sixth inning, but true to the nature of the day’s afternoon game, the runs came in a rare four-strikeout inning by reliever Steven Matz.

Missed opportunities galore

The Cardinals set a tone right from the beginning, just not one they wanted.

In the top of the first inning, the first three Cardinals to appear all reached base safely. By the time cleanup hitter Contreras came to the plate, the bases were loaded on Sox starter Sean Burke, and he’d yet to record out.

From this bountiful opportunity, the Cardinals squeezed one run.

Contreras hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Masyn Winn, and the inning petered out from there.

Burke struck out Nolan Gorman to regain a hold on the inning.

Nolan Arenado stung a deep drive that was caught in left field.

Other opportunities would also be missed. In the fifth inning, Jordan Walker drilled a liner to left field that exited his bat at 113 mph. Walker broke from the box as if the ball was going to be caught. When Taylor did not make the catch and the ball reached the wall, Walker settled for a single instead of the gift double. That inning fizzled on two strikeouts.

In the sixth, a rarity from the White Sox helped the Cardinals tie the game (see below), but there was much more to be had for the Cardinals.

Much more, like, a lead.

Ivan Herrera opened with a leadoff single, and Alec Burleson followed with a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with a catcher’s interference. That helped chase Burke from the game and put the strategic matchups in motion. The Sox opted to walk Arenado and load the bases to get lefty Brandon Eisert against Lars Nootbaar. The walk put Eisert against right-handed hitter Walker. Eisert took Walker to a full count and then dropped a change-up.

Walker froze for a called strike three that ended the inning.

Through six innings, the Cardinals stranded six runners, three in scoring position.

Error, pinball adds up vs. Fedde

In his return to the South Side to face the team that gave him a chance coming back from Korea and starring in the KBP, Fedde held the White Sox to one earned run on six hits through five innings. He searched for his sweeping slider all game and worked through the bottom of the order to limit any trouble caused by the top of the order. Fedde came his sweeper had a “regression� from how it felt earlier on the road trip.

The Cardinals right-hander did not leave with the lead because of mishaps behind him.

Back-to-back singles opened the fourth inning for the Sox, and still Fedde had a chance to escape thanks to a strikeout he got with a series of cutters.

The combination of Luis Robert Jr. bunting to assure he and his .190 average moved runners over and the cutter-K of Ryan Noda opened the chance for Fedde to slip loose of the jam without allowing a run. He even got the ground ball to do it. It came right back at him and then over second base, where Winn snagged it.

Teammate Gorman hit the deck to clear the angle for a throw.

Winn’s throw was low, and Contreras’ reach was not enough to make the dig.

That play allowed the tying run to score. An inning later, Andrew Benintendi pulled a ball down into the right field corner for a certain double. The ball skittered in the corner enough that Walker had to pause, and that gave Benintendi time to stretch for a triple. He scored on a Miguel Vargas’ RBI single.

The RBI was Vargas’ team-high 32nd. He came to the Sox in last July’s three-team deal that sent Tommy Edman to the Dodgers and brought Fedde to the Cardinals.

Rare walk knots score

The strategy was sound, even as it loaded the bases against them.

By intentionally walking Arenado so that Eisert could face Nootbaar, the White Sox put a reliever who determinedly does not walk left-handed batters against a left-handed batter who, at his best, is one of the leaders at earning walks.

Eisert had yet to walk a left-handed batter this season.

His 57th and 58th plate appearance against a lefty without allowing a walk came in the sixth inning, and stretching back to last season, his first in the majors, Eisert had walked only one left-handed batter in 69 plate appearances.

His first three pitches to Nootbaar were balls.

His fifth was, too, to walk his first left-handed batter and, as a bonus, make sure it pushed home the game-tying run. Nootbaar’s bases-loaded RBI walk leveled the game 1-1 in the sixth.

That tie did not weather the bottom of the inning.

Rarer inning unties score

For reliever Matz, the sixth inning will be reflected as a four-strikeout inning and only the second ever by a Cardinal on the road. He joins Bob Gibson, who had a four-strikeout inning on June 7, 1966, per MLB researcher Sarah Langs.

It will also be one where Matz allowed two runs.

The curious combination of numbers in his pitching line hinged around a wild pitch that allowed a strikeout to not include the out part. Pinch hitter Lenyn Sosa led off the inning, and Matz struck him out quickly. But the third strike evaded catcher Herrera, and that allowed Sosa to reach base on a wild pitch. Matz struck out three of the next four batters he faced. The one he did not, Taylor, hit a two-run homer to thrust the Sox into a 4-2 lead.

Matz appeared to get a strike 3 on Taylor that was called ball, so the lefty arguably had a fifth strikeout of the inning.

Both of the runs were earned, and those would be the only runs against Matz in 1 2/3 innings.