|
 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."
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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.
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