Another night, another collapse by the Cardinals’ bullpen to cost the club another victory they seemingly had locked up until the bottom of the ninth inning.

Some 29 hours after losing to the Dbacks in a game that they led by seven runs, the Cardinals saw another potential victory slip away when All-Star closer Riley O’Brien suffered an epic meltdown in the bottom of the ninth inning.

O’Brien allowed a run-scoring double to Vaughn Grissom in the bottom of the ninth and then drilled Jo Adell in the left arm on a pitch that was nowhere near the strike zone to force home another run as the Angels rallied to a 3-2 win over the Cardinals.  

Church gets us started! pic.twitter.com/2ubyeZX5Y1

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 21, 2026

The poor finish by O’Brien ruined a stellar effort by Kyle Leahy, who allowed just one run and three hits over six innings of work. Ryne Stanek pitched a scoreless seventh and George Soriano did the same in the eighth.

O’Brien caught Mike Trout looking with a tailing fastball to open the ninth, but it was the only batter he retired in the game-turning inning.

Nolan Schanuel singled and moved to second when O’Brien’s tailing 3-2 pitch hit Jorge Soler in the arm. From there, Grissom drilled a ball the other way and it fell just a couple of feet short of a game-winning home run, bouncing off the wall for a run-scoring double. Then, following an intentional walk to load the bases, O’Brien didn’t throw a strike and his 3-0 pitch connected with Adell’s arm pad for the walk-off hit-by-pitch.  

For eight innings, it looked as if the Cardinals were bouncing back from one of their poorest games of the season in Arizona on Sunday. In that game, the Cardinals led 7-0, but they fell 8-7 after walking in two runners, committing a defensive gaffe in left field, getting doubled off first on an infield popup and stranding 13 base runners. The Cardinals also allowing a game-tying, two-run homer to former Cards’ third baseman Nolan Arenado, who registered the 2,000th hit of his career against the Athletics on Monday night. 

Nathan Church snapped out of a 0-for-30 skid, with an RBI single in the second for the Cardinals' first run of the night.  Church later doubled, but he was called out when his momentum carried him off the bag and into Zach Neto's tag at second base.  

Prior to Monday's game, several Cardinals' coaches, players and staffers got to catch up with former St. Louis front office executive John Mozeliak, who was hired on June 26 to be the Angels interim general manager and baseball operations consultant.

"I got to see a lot of friends and friendly faces today and it was nice catching up with a lot of guys," Mozeliak said when interviewed by ESPN during Monday night's game. "You know, even when I was out of baseball, I was keeping one eye on the Cardinals and it's nice to see the success that they're having. But now my responsibility is to find a way to do it here.

"I think everybody on that (Cardinals' coaching) staff was somebody I was connected to. So, yeah, it was cool."

Leahy  breezed through six innings of work  

Leahy, who has successfully made the transition from the bullpen to the starting staff, came into Monday night with a 2-0 mark and a 0.47 ERA over his past four starts. In 19 1/3 innings of work, Leahy had allowed just one earned run while striking out 16 batters.

A quality start for Kyle Leahy! pic.twitter.com/hrQg6DdKqP

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 21, 2026

The Cardinals scored twice in the second inning when Jordan Walker led off with his 21st double of the season – a 113 mph missile that sailed over the head of Angels left fielder Josh Lowe and bounced off the wall. Following a single by Lars Nootbaar that put runners on the corners, Church broke out of long slump by lining a 0-2 splitter into right field for an RBI single. A batter later, Angels third baseman Denzer Guzman misplayed a tailor-made double play ball, allowing Nootbaar to score from third and give the Redbirds a 2-0 lead.

The Angels cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the third when Leahy hung a curveball and saw Jo Adell hammer it over the wall for a 389-foot solo homer.

It was of the few errors for Leahy, who faced just two hitters over the minimum in his six innings of work. He struck out four hitters – two of them looking and two of them swinging while throwing 95 pitches (62 strikes). He allowed just three hits and one run.       

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