JUPITER, Fla. • Before the inevitable ovation greeted Paul Goldschmidt for his first at-bat as a Cardinal on Sunday, teammate Dexter Fowler came to the plate and helped prolong the anticipation, pitch by pitch, one after another.
Fowler, in his first game since fracturing his foot Aug. 3, swung and missed at his second pitch of spring and then worked the count to 3-1. He fouled off the sixth pitch of the at-bat before striking out on the seventh, an offspeed offering. By the time Goldschmidt came up and the applause started to build and the fans started to stand, Washington pitcher Erick Fedde had already thrown 10 pitches to get two outs for his trouble.