Patrick Bailey fouled off one 3-2 fastball. He sent the next pitch, another heater, back to the net. The St. Louis reliever on the other side of this battle, Chris Stratton, then turned to a curveball, and Bailey fought that pitch off, too.

This chess match went on for 11 pitches. Stratton fired, Bailey fouled. Finally, after fighting off five straight two-strike offerings, Bailey lined a fastball that caught just a little too much of the plate for a double into left field, winning the battle and setting the table for a game-deciding rally in the top of the eighth inning.

With another two-strike poke into center, Brandon Crawford singled Bailey home to score the go-ahead run in a 4-3 win over the Cardinals on Monday in the first game of a three-game series at Busch Stadium, delivering his second late-inning, go-ahead hit in the past week.

The big hit came from Crawford, but Mitch Haniger also drove in a pair and Wilmer Flores reached base three times.

Golf

Senator asks LIV, PGA for merger information >> The leader of a Senate subcommittee is demanding the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf present records about negotiations that led to their new agreement and plans for what golf will look like under the arrangement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent letters Monday to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV CEO Greg Norman spelling out the “serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement.”

Blumenthal, who is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he also wanted to hear the tour’s plans to retain its tax-exempt status.

Last week, LIV and the tour stunned the golf world by agreeing to merge the PGA Tour and European tour with the Saudi golf interests, while also dropping all lawsuits between the parties. The governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which bankrolls LIV, will join the PGA Tour board of directors and lead a new business venture as its chairman. The PGA Tour itself will remain a tax-exempt entity.

It was a move expected to receive scrutiny from federal regulators and lawmakers, and the launch of a Senate investigation is among the first dominoes to fall.

Honors

Sharks’ Marleau, Quakes’ Wondolowski headline San Jose Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 >> There may not be two players more closely associated with San Jose professional sports than Patrick Marleau and Chris Wondolowski.

It’s fitting, then, that the two will enter the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame together.

Marleau and Wondolowski will be half of the four-person Class of 2023, the San Jose Sports Authority announced. They will be joined by two South Bay natives in former All-Star pitcher Dave Stieb and U.S. soccer star Lorrie Fair.

Marleau was a key piece of San Jose’s surge to the top of the NHL and helped the Sharks reach their only Stanley Cup Finals in 2016. Wondolowski broke the MLS record for most goals in a career in 2019 and finished his MLS career after 2021 with 171 goals.

Softball

Oklahoma ace Bahl announces plans to transfer >> Just days after leading Oklahoma’s softball team to its third straight national title, pitcher Jordy Bahl announced on social media that she is transferring and heading back to her home state of Nebraska.

Bahl is from Papillion, a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska’s largest city. She did not say which school she will play for, but there are three Division I programs in the state: Nebraska, Creighton and Omaha. Nebraska and Omaha reached the NCAA Tournament and lost in regional play this season. Creighton went 22-31.

Soccer

Turner only World Cup regular starter named to US Gold Cup roster >> Just four players who appeared for the U.S. at last year’s World Cup are on a largely junior varsity roster announced for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, including just one regular starter: goalkeeper Matt Turner.

The 23-man roster selected by new interim coach B.J. Callaghan for the championship of the Confederation of North and Central America and the Caribbean has three others who saw limited World Cup time: forwards Jesús Ferreira and Jordan Morris, and right back DeAndre Yedlin. Three additional players were on the World Cup roster without getting into a match: goalkeeper Sean Johnson, defender Aaron Long and midfielder Cristian Roldan.