St. Louis 10, Philadelphia 1
When: 7:05 PM ET, Saturday, June 20, 2015
Where: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Temperature:
82°
Umpires:
Home -
Victor Carapazza, 1B -
Brian Knight, 2B -
Larry Vanover, 3B -
Ron Kulpa
Attendance:
24256
By The Sports Xchange
PHILADELPHIA -- St. Louis outfielder Randal Grichuk had heard that Citizens Bank Park is a good ballpark for hitters.
Through his first two career games there, he's finding out exactly why.
"I heard the ball flies here coming into (the weekend)," he said. "I'm seeing it has."
The rookie collected his first multi-homer game on Saturday night, propelling the Cardinals to a 10-1 win over the Phillies and marking another series win for the team with the best record in the major leagues.
Grichuk's first homer of the night came against Phillies starter Aaron Harang with no outs in the sixth inning after right fielder Jason Heyward and catcher Yadier Molina led off with singles. He sent a 2-1 fastball over the wall and into the bullpen, breaking a 1-1 tie.
The shot to straightaway center showed just how much power the 23-year-old has up his sleeves.
"You watch out how that ball goes out to center field, and that's rare," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Not just that he can go there, but how it goes -- that ball was hit very hard."
By the time Grichuk hit his second homer, a solo shot in the ninth, his teammates had blown the game open with a run in the seventh and four in the eighth.
The home runs were the fifth and sixth of the season for Grichuk, who went 3-for-5 with three runs and four RBIs. He also homered in a 12-4 Cardinals win to open the series the night before, and has six hits in the first two games of the series.
St. Louis has 32 hits in the first two games of the series, setting and tying a season high with 16 in each.
"Hits are contagious, (so) you can say that started us a little bit," Grichuk said of his first homer. "But the guys have been swinging it great the last two days, so we've been having good at-bats, swinging the bat and putting good contact on."
Heyward and Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta also collected three hits apiece.
The victory moved St. Louis to a major-league best 22 games above .500. The Phillies, meanwhile, dropped to a major league-worst 24 games below the break-even mark with their sixth loss in a row.
As the losses continue to pile up and the franchise looks headed for one of its worst seasons ever, Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg is running out of ways to turn things around.
"We've got to pitch better and we have to counter that somehow," he said. "Pitch better, play better defense and swing the bats to counter that."
Harang took the loss, giving up four runs (all earned) in six innings. It's the sixth straight defeat for the veteran, whose record has gone from 4-3 to 4-9 and his ERA has risen from 1.82 on May 19 to 3.41.
"Sometimes when you're going out there, you're trying to executive that perfect pitch and you try to put too much pressure on yourself," he said. "That's where it hurts."
Cardinals starter John Lackey (6-4, 3.41) picked up his second win in a row, going seven innings while allowing five hits and one run.
Cody Asche opened the scoring in the bottom of the second for the Phillies with a two-out homer to right, the third home run of the year for the converted outfielder and first since his recall from triple-A Lehigh Valley on May 29.
The Cardinals squared things in the top of the fourth when Peralta led off with a single and came around to score two batters later on Molina's RBI double.
NOTES: The Phillies designated RHP Phillippe Aumont for assignment and selected the contract of RHP Seth Rosin from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Aumont gave up six runs in four innings Friday in his only major-league appearance this year. ... Phillies starting pitchers have not won since May 23 at Washington, a span of 25 games. They're 0-16 with a 5.97 ERA during that span. No other starting rotation in the majors has fewer than five wins during that period. ... St. Louis C Yadier Molina has hit safely in seven straight games. Heβs batting 12-for-26 (.462) with two home runs and four RBIs during that span.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
St. Louis |
|
Philadelphia |
John Lackey
|
Player |
Aaron Harang |
Win |
W/L |
Loss |
7.0 |
IP |
6.0 |
3 |
Strikeouts |
6 |
5 |
Hits |
7 |
1.29 |
ERA |
6.00 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
St. Louis
|
16 |
2 |
26 |
.400 |
19 |
8 |
10 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
Philadelphia
|
6 |
1 |
9 |
.200 |
14 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |