Wainwright's homer sparks Cardinals past Phillies

Send a link to a friend  Share

[May 03, 2016]  ST. LOUIS -- Adam Wainwright lived out a childhood dream Monday night.

He also sparked a team in desperate need of one.

The St. Louis Cardinals' pitcher walloped a three-run homer in the fourth inning, erasing a 3-0 deficit and lifting his team to a 10-3 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium.

Wainwright (2-3) won his second straight start with perhaps his best outing of the season, allowing three runs off five hits and a walk in six innings while fanning four.

But it was his 408-foot clout down the left field line that not only served as the game's fulcrum, but gave St. Louis (13-13) the boost it sorely needed after a sluggish start and four consecutive losses.

"Every time I've come to the plate since I was eight years old, I've dreamed of hitting a ball like that," Wainwright said. "I've never hit a ball that I've known was a homer as soon as it left the bat. That was the first."

With Yadier Molina at second and Matt Adams at first, Wainwright worked a 3-1 count from Jeremy Hellickson (2-2), then jumped all over a 91-mph fastball right down the middle. It sailed about three rows deep into the third deck as a crowd of 40,438 roared to life.

After getting a celebratory cup of water in his face from fellow starting pitcher Carlos Martinez at the end of the "home run" line, Wainwright took a curtain call.

"I was jumping around like a little kid," Molina said.

The guys who are paid to hit for a living followed suit in the sixth and seventh, turning a tie game into a blowout.

Adams led off the sixth with a first-pitch homer to left-center, followed by Aledmys Diaz's third-deck bomb to left two pitches later. Stephen Piscotty added a two-out RBI single later in the inning for a 6-3 lead.

Reliever Brett Oberholtzer was strafed for the Cardinals' second set of back-to-back homers an inning later -- a two-run blast by Kolten Wong and a 443-foot rocket to left-center by Randal Grichuk to make it 9-3.

Brandon Moss capped the scoring with a run-producing single in the eighth as St. Louis finished with 14 hits and its second game of five homers or more at home this year. It cracked six on April 15 in a 14-3 blowout of Cincinnati.

"You need those games when things aren't going in a good direction, just to reaffirm your belief in the team," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "It was good to see that production from the bottom of the lineup, too."

[to top of second column]

Philadelphia (15-11) entered with a six-game winning streak, its longest since Sept. 5-12, 2012. It looked on track for a seventh win when it touched Wainwright for three runs in the third on a two-run single by Freddy Galvis and a sacrifice fly by Maikel Franco.

Hellickson maneuvered out of jams in the second and third, and was one out away from doing so in the fourth after Diaz fouled out and Wong fanned. But his ill-fated fastball to Wainwright changed the game's complexion completely.

"I know Wainwright's a good hitter for a pitcher, but the ball was right down the middle," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said.

Hellickson was charged with six runs off seven hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings, whiffing five.

St. Louis won for just the second time in 10 games when facing a team with a winning record. Coming off a sweep at Washington's hands over the weekend, the Cardinals heard the naysayers and pledged to do something about it.

Thanks to the unexpected thunder from their veteran ace pitcher's bat, they did.

"We didn't play as well as we could have against Washington, and we know that," Wainwright said. "We just have to show up every day expecting to win. At this point, it's all about wins for me."

NOTES: St. Louis OF Tommy Pham (left oblique strain) took batting practice Monday and expects to start a rehab assignment before the week's over. Pham was injured on his first at-bat on Opening Day in Pittsburgh. ... Philadelphia OF Cody Asche (right oblique strain) took some swings Monday but there is no timetable for his return. Asche hit the 15-day DL Apr. 2, retroactive to March 25. ... Matt Adams' pinch-single in the ninth inning Sunday gave the Cardinals an MLB-high 18 pinch-hits for the year. They lead MLB with seven pinch-homers and 13 RBI.

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Back to top