Four homers send Cardinals past Phillies
The St. Louis Cardinals jumped all over Philadelphia Phillies' pitcher Kyle Kendrick in the fifth inning of Monday night's game, knocking three homers out of the park to lead the Cardinals to an 8-4 win. It was the Cardinals' sixth win in a row, bringing them to 52-41 on the season and kept them ahead of the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central. The Phillies dropped to 48-44, losing precious ground in the NL Wild Card race and fell even further in the NL East to six games behind the Atlanta Braves.
Kendrick came into the game with a 4-0 record with a 1.67 ERA against the Cardinals, and St. Louis' star first baseman Albert “The Machine” Pujols came into the game with below-average statistics against Philadelphia, including just two home runs. But it was Pujols who started the home-run barrage in the fifth with a two-run blast to left field for his 22nd home run of the season, which was followed a few at-bats later by back-to-back shots by rookie Allen Craig, his first of his career, and Skip Schumaker.
Randy Winn's pinch hit home run in the bottom of the sixth of relief pitcher Chad Durbin sealed the deal for the Cardinals. St. Louis needed just eight hits to score their eight runs.
The Phillies haven't been the same since losing All-Star second baseman Chase Utley earlier in the month. On Saturday, Philadelphia called up Placido Polanco from the minors after rehabbing his elbow injury. Polanco hit safely in the first inning, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. It was his only hit of the night. Despite the low scoring, the only starters to go hitless were second baseman Wilson Valdez and Kendrick, though Kendrick did draw two walks.
Kendrick shouldn't pitch the fifth
It was not a surprise that Kendrick was smacked around in the fifth inning. Coming into Monday's game, his ERA in the fifth inning was 9.2. By the end of the inning he had surrendered an additional five runs, blowing the Phillies' 4-2 lead.
"My command was off all night," Kendrick said. "I got behind, I left pitches up. They should be hit where they hit them."
It looked like the Phillies were in line for a big game early on, putting up three runs on five hits in the top of the first. Blake Hawksworth needed 32 pitches to get out of the first, but only allowed another five hits throughout his six innings of work. Hawksworth, a rotation fill-in for injured starters Brad Penny and Kyle Lohse, improved to 5-4 on the season.
"That could have gotten ugly," Hawksworth said. "But you try to forget the things that happened early in the game, and just focus on the present and the next pitch.”
Cardinals had no where to go but up after last outing vs. Philadelphia
The four-homer game tied a season-high for St. Louis, who also got run support from Jon Jay, who had two doubles and one RBI, and Brendan Ryan, the shortstop who hits unconventionally out of the nine-hole for the Cardinals, a lineup maneuver that manager Tony La Russa typically uses. La Russa was pleased with the output from his lineup after facing Kendrick on May 5 in Philadelphia, where their offense was cold as Kendrick hurled seven shutout innings for the 4-0 win.
“We couldn't hit the ball past the pitcher,” La Russa said. This time, they couldn't keep the ball in the park.
The Cardinals didn't even need cleanup hitter Matt Holliday to contribute to the effort, as it was his day off. Holliday is hitting .307 with 16 home runs and 53 RBI. There was concern about whether the offence could produce runs without the one-two punch of Pujols and Holliday, but those doubts were put to rest quickly.
"That was something you didn't see too much in the first half, but we knew it was coming around," Pujols said. "Hopefully we can continue to swing the bats the way we are, and play defence, too."
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