Cardinals lose in walk-off fashion after Riley O'Brien plunks Jo Adell with bases loaded

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Jul 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — A day after seeing their seven-run lead evaporate in a loss in Arizona, the one-run lead the Cardinals nursed for most of Monday night in Anaheim vanished in the ninth with their All-Star closer on the mound.

Pitching with a 2-1 lead, right-hander Riley O'Brien put two runners on base with one out in the ninth after giving up a single to Nolan Schanuel and hitting Jorge Soler with a sweeper. O'Brien allowed the game-tying run to score on a double from Vaughn Grissom and, after the Cardinals intentionally walked Josh Lowe to load the bases, O'Brien plunked Jo Adell to allow the game-winning run to score in a 3-2 walk-off loss at Angel Stadium.

The Cardinals (51-48) were elevated to a 2-0 lead in the second on RBIs from Nathan Church and Blaze Jordan. A quality start from Kyle Leahy, during which he allowed one run, and consecutive innings of relief from Ryne Stanek (one inning) and George Soriano (one inning) bridged the game to O'Brien, who blew his fifth save opportunity of the year.

In what was his first start coming out of the All-Star break, Leahy delivered one of his sharpest performances of the season. Leahy tossed six innings and allowed one run, no walks and struck out four batters. He limited the Angels to three hits, one of which was a solo homer by Adell.

The start was Leahy’s third this season of six or more innings and one run or fewer allowed. The sharp start lowered Leahy’s ERA to 3.59 through 19 outings this year.

The Cardinals’ lead came thanks to hard contact off Halos starter Jose Soriano, who completed seven innings and struck out seven.

What began with a double All-Star Jordan Walker hit to left field with a 112.7 mph exit velocity opened up an inning that included an RBI single from Church that scored Walker and set up Jordan to hit with runners on the corners and one out against Soriano.

Jordan hit a sharp grounder to third base that was bobbled by Denzer Guzman and allowed Lars Nootbaar to scamper home for a second run.

SoCal scoring

The Cardinals’ first run in their three-game set in Anaheim was locally sourced.

After Walker scorched a double to left field and Nootbaar followed behind him with a single to the same part of the field, Southern Californian Church produced a one-out single that lifted the Cardinals to a lead.

Down 0-2 in the count to Soriano, Church went below the strike zone and drove a splitter to right field with a 103.7 mph exit velocity for a single that scored Walker. The run provided by Church, who was born nearby Newport Beach, California, and graduated from El Toro high school in Lake Forest, California, came in a timely fashion.

Church entered Monday’s opener hitless in his previous 30 at-bats. The second inning single was his first hit since July 6. He collected a second single in the fourth inning, but had that wiped away by his aggressive base running.

On a ball lined to center field with a 105.5 mph exit velocity, Church attempted to race to second base after Mike Trout bobbled the ball. Church was called safe on the field, but a challenge initiated by the Angels overturned the call, resulting in an inning-ending out at second base.

Another streak stopped

While Church stopped his hitless streak at 30 at-bats, Angels right fielder Adell snapped an 0-for-24 skid when he launched a homer off Leahy in the third inning.

Adell, who had not collected a hit since July 9, pounced on a 1-2 curveball Leahy missed over the middle of the plate and sent it 389 feet to left field for a solo homer to open the bottom of the third inning. The homer, Adell’s 14th of the season, was the first hit Leahy allowed in the series-opener.

Leahy retired the first six batters he faced on 25 pitches. He got to two strikes three pitches into his at-bat vs. Adell. He got Adell to chase a slider off the inner half of the plate but had it fouled off, which allowed Adell to earn the curveball Leahy misplaced.

Picking up where he left off

After his last start before the All-Star break was kept to three innings because of a rain delay in St. Louis, Leahy started his second half in sharp fashion.

The righty showed increased velocity with each of the six pitches he flashed. On average, Leahy’s curveball, his second-most used pitch in the outing, was 1.4 mph faster than its average this year. His sinker had a 1.3 mph average increase and his sweeper (1.5 mph) and changeup (1.1 mph) also had average increases above 1.0 mph, per Statcast.

Leahy got whiffs on each of the six pitches he threw and strikeouts with three different pitches. He dotted a 96.6 mph sinker on the low and outside corner to freeze Zach Neto for a called third strike to start his outing and got Jorge Soler to whiff on a 3-2 curveball to begin the second inning.

A changeup placed on the outer half of the plate in a 3-2 count to Trout got the three-time American League MVP to whiff for strike three. That ended the third inning with Neto standing on first base. And in the fifth, a 94 mph sinker located on the inner half of the plate to Josh Lowe got Leahy an inning-opening strikeout.