ST. LOUIS — If Wednesday’s shutout loss in Colorado was a particularly acute source of frustration for the Cardinals, they were able to work through some of those frustrations with Thursday night’s offensive explosion. St. Louis slugged its way to a 9-7 victory in the opening game of a four-game set against the San Diego Padres, securing manager Oliver Marmol’s 300th career win.
“We needed it, especially after they punched early,” Marmol said of the team’s hot start at the plate. “To be able to do what we did in the second was extremely important, especially coming off that road trip. You wanted to kind of come out a little stronger. We needed the offense to get going.”
After Willson Contreras opened their scoring with an RBI double in the bottom of the first inning, the bottom of the second saw the Redbirds truly take flight. Contreras and Brendan Donovan both smashed three-run homers to account for the scoring in a six-run frame. It was the first time the Cardinals hit two three-run homers in one inning since Albert Pujols and Tino Martinez did so against Pittsburgh’s Josh Fogg in 2003.
On Thursday, the Cardinals did their damage against Yu Darvish, who has consistently bedeviled them over the course of his impressive career. It had been more than six years since Darvish last failed to complete at least six innings against the Cardinals. The eight earned runs allowed by Darvish were also his most surrendered to St. Louis in 10 career starts against the Cardinals.
Iván Herrera would add three hits, including a solo homer, and two RBIs, and Victor Scott II walked twice and scored on each from the last spot in the lineups. Sonny Gray battled through five innings in his first home start following the All-Star break, securing his team-leading 10th win.
“I think this was a testament to our offense continuing to put pressure on,” Gray said. “And our bullpen coming in, any breathing room that they kind of had, the bullpen, you know, they came in and shut the door. There’s not a right or wrong way to win a game in this league.”
The bullpen posted four shutout innings behind Gray, with St. Louis’ high leverage trio of lefty JoJo Romero and righties Phil Maton and Ryan Helsley combining to handle 3 2/3 of those innings with six strikeouts. Helsley recorded his 20th save of the season, and it comes at the start of the final week before a Trade Deadline which could see the free agent-to-be dealt away from the only organization he’s ever known.
Following a road trip to Arizona and Colorado in which the Cardinals went 1-5 and were outscored 18-0 in the first two innings of those six games, there was a decided need to not only find offense, but also to find it quickly. By jumping on the Padres early – and responding to a top of the first inning in which Gray surrendered two runs before recording two outs – the Cardinals were able to reverse course and move the game’s momentum back in their direction.
“Definitely trying to get out ahead of these guys, because they can hit a little bit,” Scott said. “If we get downhill and try to keep the pressure on them, we can have kind of the game in our favor at that point.”
It was Scott’s walk with two out in the second that advanced Jordan Walker to second base and set the table for Donovan to blast his ninth homer of the season, which put St. Louis on top for good. After a pre-series hitters’ meeting in which the team was strongly encouraged to find a way to get going early, his bolt to the seats in right fulfilled that desire.
“I think the most important day of a series is trying to win the first game of a series,” Donovan said. “We’re trying to be short minded, still kind of evaluate and learn from this past road trip, so today was a good response.”
That preparation, a focus for the Cardinals this season under hitting coach Brant Brown, was likened by Donovan to the first course of a three-course meal. The game itself, he explained, is more like dessert than anything else, so it’s appropriate that the offense rolled out a sweet treat to celebrate its manager’s milestone victory.
“You can’t have dessert without the first two [courses],” Donovan said through a sly smile. “Some nights you don’t get dessert.”
The Cardinals, on Thursday, did not miss a course.
