The St. Louis Cardinals dropped a strange game to the San Francisco Giants Wednesday, when a Fernando Salas blown save left a gassed Ryan Franklin on the mound in extra innings. Even Busch Stadium’s lights got in on the action, blinking out in the last at-bat of the game to delay the ending for 16 minutes before the Giants could record a final score of 7-5. Allen Craig homered and Daniel Descalso tripled for the Cardinals, who saw rookie closer Salas blow his first save of the season.
Franklin, who’d been invisible in the bullpen for weeks, went two innings in his second appearance in as many days, and couldn’t keep the Giants off the board in the 11th inning. The Cardinals couldn’t come away with the win despite taking five runs and 10 hits against Giants ace Tim Lincecum, and Jake Westbrook, who went just five-and-two-thirds, wasn’t able to rest a bullpen that had seen too much work in the last week.