ST. LOUIS -- Finding hits at the right time can make all the difference for a dangerous Cardinals offense.
St. Louis struggled with two outs and runners in scoring position early in the season, going just 1 for 13 before Matt Carpenter's two-out RBI double in the fourth inning Wednesday night. By the time the red-hot third baseman capped off the Cardinals' scoring Saturday with a two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning of a 5-2 win over Cincinnati, several of his teammates had joined the clutch-hitting party.
"Two-out hits, two-out RBIs are killer to the other team and a huge momentum changer for the offense," says Carpenter, who also hit a two-out RBI double in the seventh inning of Thursday's 4-0 win. "We were able to do that (Saturday) and we've been able to do that as of late, so it's going well."
The Cardinals scored four of their five runs with two outs to seal a 14th straight three-game series win against the Reds, who lost two of three at home to St. Louis a week ago. Home runs carried the Cardinals at hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark, making up for some other missed opportunities.
When they found a way to combine timely hitting with more sensational starting pitching, it led to a little less stress for manager Mike Matheny. St. Louis has won four straight by an average margin of 3.5 runs since leaving 12 men on base in a 5-4 loss to Milwaukee on Monday.
"I think they've been taking some pretty good approaches all season long," Matheny says. "We are getting the big hits."
That's far more important than just reaching 10 hits in a game, which the Cardinals have done in five of their last eight tries. They've shown a knack for stringing hits together since Carpenter, Jason Heyward and Matt Holliday went single-single-double to begin a 4-2 win over Milwaukee on Wednesday.
It's a winning formula at Busch Stadium, where home runs aren't easy to come by, particularly in April. Only five major league stadiums were less conducive to home runs in 2014, according to FanGraphs, and ESPN's Park Factors show Busch has been the toughest place to go deep so far in 2015.
Those numbers will change as the sample sizes grow and the weather heats up, but so far a tendency to hit line drives rather than flyballs has paid off for power hitters such as Holliday. He's hitting line drives at a rate of 22.2 percent compared with just 18.5 percent for flyballs, likely a major reason he's batting .364 with a double as his only extra-base hit.
As a team, the Cardinals are up to fourth in the National League with a .260 batting average prior to Sunday's games, even though they're still only eighth with 4.1 runs per game. Keep hitting at the right times, and that ranking will continue to rise.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
