Cards win two
It took a little while for St. Louis’ bats to get going during Thursday’s doubleheader against Toronto. Once they did, they made a big difference. After rallying late to win the first game 8-4 on Matt Carpenter’s walk-off grand slam, the Cardinals scored early and often to beat the Blue Jays 6-4 and sweep the doubleheader.
ST. LOUIS — It took a little while for the St. Louis Cardinals bats to get going during Thursday’s day-night doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Once they did, they made a big difference.
After rallying late to win the first game, backed by Randal Grichuk’s ninth-inning home run and Matt Carpenter’s 11th inning grand slam, the Cardinals scored early and often in the nightcap to beat the Blue Jays 6-4 and sweep the doubleheader.
“Overall it’s a good day,” St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny said. “You walk out of here with two wins today. Having our back against the wall in the first one, that’s impressive. I think it says a lot about these guys.”
The Cardinals, who got back to .500 at 11-11, recorded 14 runs and 25 hits in the two games. The injury-plagued Blue Jays, the only team in the majors yet to win a series or consecutive games, fell to 6-16.
“Today was a big day,” said Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright (2-3), who earned the victory in the nightcap. “We swept a doubleheader here at home. We wanted to play better ball at home this year. That’s one thing we know we’ve got to do and we know we can do.”
The Cardinals, who got three hits apiece from Dexter Fowler, Greg Garcia and Matt Adams in the second game, scored three times in the first inning.
After Fowler and Garcia hit backto-back singles, Carpenter plated a run with a groundout and Stephen Piscotty hit an RBI sacrifice fly. Grichuk followed with an infield single and scored on Matt Adams’ opposite-field
double into the left field corner.
Fowler added a solo home run, his third of the season, in the second inning. Adams had an RBI single in the third. Piscotty had an RBI fielder’s choice in the fourth to make it 6-0.
Matt Bowman (1-0) won the opener and the Cardinals’ bullpen, which included seven different pitchers, combined to allow just 1 run on 4 hits in 72/3 innings over the two games.
Ryan Tepera (1-1) and Casey Lawrence (0-3) took the losses.
“It could have been a good day,” Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons said. “Tough first ballgame, then we fell behind early. We made a run. Long, tough day getting swept.”