Yadier Molina ripped a game-winning hit and lead the Cardinals to a 5-4 win Thursday night over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have lost 11 straight games.
Molina was doing what the 38-year-old catcher has done for nearly two decades, throwing his body around behind the plate, blocking pitches from the Cardinals' stable full of hard-throwing relievers.
Then came the 10th inning, and the St. Louis star still had the energy to rip a game-winning hit.
The Cardinals won despite blowing a 4-0 lead. Carlos Martinez took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and O'Neill hit a two-run homer in his return from the injured list.
The Diamondbacks clawed their way back with a big seventh. The first six batters reached base - punctuated by Pavin Smith's two-run double - and they cut the deficit to 4-3. Smith came up big again in the eighth, driving a tying double into the left-center gap that scored Ketel Marte.
Martinez was brilliant through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing three straight hits and getting pulled from the game after David Peralta's RBI double. He retired the first nine batters he faced, including six strikeouts. He didn't allow a baserunner until Josh Rojas led off the fourth with a walk.
He struck out six and allowed three earned runs.
Genesis Cabrera relieved Martinez but allowed all three batters he faced to reach base, including Smith's two-run double, which cut the Cardinals' lead to 4-3. Ryan Helsley was able to keep the lead despite entering the game in a no-out, bases-loaded jam, pumping 99 mph fastballs past Carson Kelly and Andy Young before Rojas hit a harmless groundout to second base.
O'Neill crushed a 451-foot homer to center field in his first at-bat since a fracture in his left middle finger kept him out of the lineup for nearly two weeks. The ball bounced off the scoreboard in center, which is high above the 413-foot sign.
Arizona's Jon Duplantier was moved into a starting role on Thursday after Matt Peacock was scratched because of a non-COVID-19 illness. It was the 26-year-old's first appearance in the big leagues since 2019, when he made 15 appearances, including three starts.
The right-hander got off to a good start, striking out leadoff hitter Tommy Edman on three pitches. But he ran into trouble in the second, giving up O'Neill's long homer and walking Goldschmidt with the bases loaded. He gave up four earned runs over 4 2/3 innings.
Alex Reyes (3-1) got the win with a scoreless ninth.
The D-backs will send Madison Bumgarner (4-4, 4.53) to the mound on Friday to face Cardinals RHP Johan Oviedo (0-2, 5.74 ERA).
