Giants hit two three-run homers in 7-2 victory vs. Cardinals
ST. LOUIS — One team had a pair of three-run homers. The other had 10 singles among its 11 hits and was 2 for 11 with men in scoring position. Which would you choose?
The San Francisco Giants, the party of the first part, scored all seven of their runs on homers, including a solo shot, to push their winning streak to five games as baseball’s best team at 58-32 and extend their major league home run lead to 135. The Cardinals continued to be one of baseball’s most confounding teams as they dropped a 7-2 decision before a paid house of 33,743 at Busch Stadium Friday night.
Boston Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski hit three homers against the Cardinals in the 1967 World Series although the Red Sox came up short. Grandson Mike connected twice on Friday, including one of the threerun shots, breaking the game open in the seventh.
The Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright (7-6) and San Francisco’s Logan Webb, a replacement for All-Star right-hander Kevin Gausman, who went on the family medical emergency list to be with his wife, in the hospital experiencing pregnancy problems, sailed through the first three innings in scoreless fashion.
Wainwright gave up a second-inning single to former Cardinals farmhand Donovan Solano and Webb pitched around leadoff singles by Tyler O’Neill in the second and Harrison Bader in the third.
But the Cardinals went 0 for 4 with a runner in scoring position in those innings although Tommy Edman lined to second baseman Solano in the second and Paul Goldschmidt was thrown out from behind second by Solano to end the third.
Yastrzemski poled a Wainwright cutter just fair to right for a leadoff homer, his 13th of home run of the season, to open the Giants’ fourth.
Again, the Cardinals had a leadoff single in their fourth as Nolan Arenado found the gap between short and third. After O’Neill flied out, Yadier Molina tapped out to second, moving Arenado to second.
This time, the Cardinals came through as Edman blooped a game-tying single to left. Paul DeJong singled to right, sending Edman to third, and Bader walked to fill the bases for Wainwright, who had been 1 for 30 with 15 strikeouts for the season. He fanned against a breaking ball and the game remained deadlocked.
Wainwright, working on nine days’ rest after his pre-All Star break Sunday in Chicago was rained out, got into trouble in the fifth when Solano singled up the middle and Steven Dugger walked. And then Wainwright got out of trouble, almost. He fanned Curt Casali for his seventh and final strikeout and induced pinch hitter Darin Ruf to pop up.
But LaMonte Wade Jr., one of the Giants’ valuable injury fill-ins, lined a three-run homer, his eighth, and the Cardinals suddenly were down three.
Zach Littell relieved Webb, whose only other appearance against the Cardinals, two years ago, had involved him giving up eight runs in 2 2/3 innings at Busch Stadium.
Littell allowed a one-out walk to Goldschmidt in the fifth and a two-out single to O’Neill. But Molina lined to right, leaving the Cardinals 1 for 7 with men in scoring position.
That went to 1 for 9 when pinch hitter Matt Carpenter grounded sharply into a forceout and Dylan Carlson fanned for the third time (he would have four for the night) against left-hander Jarlin Garcia, who replaced former Cardinal John Brebbia in the sixth.
Luis Garcia, who also wears No. 66 but is no relation, allowed one-out singles by Casali and pinch hitter Mike Tauchman in the seventh. Left-hander T. J. McFarland, just brought up for his ability as a ground-ball pitcher, got one on pinch hitter Thairo Estrada.
Third baseman Arenado fielded a chopper and ran to the bag for a forceout but his throw to first was too late to catch Estrada. McFarland then served up left-handedbatting Yastrzemski’s second homer of the night, a threerun drive into the Cardinals’ bullpen in right, just over the desperate lunge of Carlson.
Dominic Leone, another former Cardinals pitcher, relieved in the Cardinals’ seventh and Goldschmidt walloped his 14th homer, a 440foot drive to center, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. After Leone had struck out Arenado and O’Neill, he allowed a single by Molina and walked Edman to load the bases. The hit by Molina moved him into fifth place ahead of Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter at 2,065 for most career hits by a Cardinal.
Right-hander Jay Jackson entered to face Bader, who took strike three as the Cardinals stranded three more runners, hiking their total to 12. The Giants stranded three for the night.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler, with his ace not here, employed seven pitchers and he also had to play the final two innings without All-Star shortstop Crawford, who appeared to have sustained a foot injury while he was in the process of singling in the eighth.