Jun 8, 2022; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher T.J. McFarland (62) pitches in the 8th inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Dave Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball is a game of threes. Three strikes and you’re out and three outs in an inning are both basic rules. The former rule was forgotten by the home plate umpire in Game 1 of the series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays. The latter rule was forgotten by a St. Louis pitcher in Game 2 on Wednesday night.

Tampa was up in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and one out. Cardinals pitcher TJ McFarland jammed Randy Arozarena on a pitch. Arozarena hit a ball weakly back to McFarland. While it probably was not hit hard enough for a double play, McFarland had plenty of time to force Harold Ramirez out at home. Unfortunately for the Cardinals and their fans, he seemingly forgot how many outs there were and retired Arozarena at first.

With that, Ramirez crossed the plate for another run.

Things got even worse for McFarland when, one hitter later, Vidal Bruján singled and drove in Yandy Díaz to put Tampa up 8-3.

Naturally, McFarland was the target of some criticism.

McFarland did pitch the seventh inning as well, but things didn’t get any better. Tampa scored three more runs to open up an 11-3 lead.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, McFarland was eventually removed from the game in favor of Yadier Molina. While McFarland had a miserable day on the mound, allowing three runs on five hits with two walks in two innings, Molina was fantastic. Molina did allow two hits, but he pitched a scoreless inning and even notched a strikeout.

Another observation was made at the end of Molina’s inning.

https://twitter.com/CardinaIsCritic/status/1534720173021724674

It definitely wasn’t a birthday to remember for McFarland.

[MLB Errors]

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