Oakland avoids sweep, blanks Cardinals as rookie Matthew Liberatore cannot author encore
Aug. 16—As encouraged and delighted as the Cardinals were by Matthew Liberatore’s exceptional start against the Tampa Bay Rays, the enthusiasm for his scoreless performance and breakthrough fastball came with a caveat.
Now he had to do something else for the first time.
An encore. Coming off a career high for pitches and the first eightinning start of his life, Liberatore was not able to…