Cardinals' Giovanny Gallegos: Stumbles in return

Gallegos, activated from the injured list earlier in the day, allowed an earned run on two hits, a walk and a wild pitch over two-thirds of inning in a loss to the Royals on Monday. He struck out two.

The right-hander had a rough landing in his return to action, allowing an RBI double to Jorge Soler that plated Adalberto Mondesi to extend the Royals' lead to 4-1 in the home half of the eighth. Gallegos ended up throwing 21 pitches overall in the extended outing, his first since Sept. 10 against the Tigers. Gallegos has now allowed at least one run in three straight appearances dating back to Sept. 8, but he'd put together a near-flawless season prior to those stumbles and is still presumably a candidate for higher-leverage work than he saw Monday over the final days of the campaign.