Cardinals offense keeps rolling for second big win in the Big Apple
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the Cardinals' offense have been greatly exaggerated.
Every position player in the lineup reached base safely for the second straight night as St. Louis crushed the Mets 9-0 in a win that could have ended with the same score after five innings. Bartolo Colon entered the game as the Mets' top pitcher and probably left wondering how the Cardinals scored only 12 runs during a six-game stretch.
That ended in a 10-2 win on Tuesday, and St. Louis picked up where it left off with a leadoff single by Kolten Wong in the first inning Wednesday night. He scored on a two-out double by Jhonny Peralta, who extended his hit streak to eight games.
Pitcher Carlos Martinez threw a gem and contributed offensively with a sacrifice bunt as St. Louis did just about everything, capped off by Randal Grichuk's two-out triple in the ninth. He became the first Cardinal to hit a double and triple in consecutive games since the great Red Schoendienst in 1954.
"We came out hot against Bartolo (Colon) today early and got ahead of him pretty quick and kind of never let off early," Grichuk told Pat Parris after the game on FOX Sports Midwest. "I feel comfortable at the plate."
Jason Heyward and Matt Adams returned from a night off and provided power with a pair of home runs in the fourth inning, the fourth of the season for both lefties. Adams' three-run blast into the bullpen put the finishing touches on a six-run inning after Matt Carpenter sandwiched a walk between singles by Wong and Matt Holliday.
The top three hitters in the St. Louis lineup went 7 for 13 with a walk, and all four are batting at least .311 this season. The Cardinals rank second in the National League with a .268 average.
Even at the bottom of the lineup, Heyward and Grichuk appear to be heating up with a combined eight hits over the last two games. Tuesday's batting order didn't even include Peter Bourjos or Mark Reynolds, who combined to go 5 for 10 with four runs and two RBIs on Monday.
Watch the Cardinals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every St. Louis Cardinals game on FOX Sports Midwest.
"We're clicking really well and we're going on all cylinders, so we just want to get on base, try and score some runs," Wong said on the Cardinals Live postgame show. "(Colon) likes to attack the zone, so our whole plan was to be aggressive right back at him, and fortunately for us we were able to get at him pretty good."
3 UP
• Magnificent Martinez. The Carlos Martinez of April made his triumphant return against the Mets.
They mustered just four hits in 6 1/3 innings against the right-hander, who went six innings and never gave up more than two runs in four starts during the first month of the season. Two ugly starts in May led to a skyrocketing ERA and raised some concerns, but the 23-year-old took a big step toward silencing his doubters to improve to 4-2.
"He felt really good tonight," Martinez's translator told reporters during the Cardinals Live postgame show. "He was really focused on the strike zone. He listened to (catcher Yadier Molina) a lot, so tonight was a great night for him."
• Holliday's streak. Holliday just keeps inching closer to Albert Pujols' franchise record of 42 straight games reaching base safely to start a season.
The left fielder pushed his streak to 38 games with a first-inning single and went 3 for 4 with an RBI to raise his average to a team-best .328. He ranks third in Major League Baseball with a .442 on-base percentage.
• Grichuk's glove. Martinez said through a translator he felt sure he'd given up an RBI single when Michael Cuddyer lined a pitch softly into center field.
But Grichuk raced forward and made his second spectacular diving catch in three nights for the second out of the inning. Colon had strayed a little too far off third base, but the large, 41-year-old pitcher still might not have wanted to tag up and test the arm of the Cardinals' rookie center fielder, a Gold Glove winner in the minor leagues.
"I knew I had a chance to make a play," Grichuk said. "I was hoping he was tagging to see if I'd get the opportunity to gun him out, but yeah, big play."
As a bonus, Grichuk made another sliding catch after moving to left field to rob Curtis Granderson of a single in the eighth inning.
3 DOWN
Well, let's see ... St. Louis scored nine runs on 14 hits and shut down the Mets thanks to some great pitching and several spectacular defensive plays to become the first MLB team to 27 wins.
Yeah, I think it's for the best if we skip this section again.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
