Thursday’s Game Report: Cardinals 5, Phillies 3
It didn’t matter how. It didn’t matter who got the biggest hit or threw the most important pitch or made the most important defensive play.
The only thing that mattered to the Cardinals on Thursday was that they won a game.
After losing 18 of their previous 24 games and headed to perhaps their worst month of May in team history, the Cardinals had to find a way to win and they did that on Thursday.
They hit four home runs, got a quality start from Dakota Hudson, a save from Jordan Hicks and a great catch from Dexter Fowler that ended the game and secured the win in Philadelphia.
The win assured the Cardinals that they would not tie the 1978 Cardinals’ record of 20 losses in May. They are now 8-18 for the month with one game remaining on Friday night.
Here is how the game broke down:
At the plate: The four homers came from Marcell Ozuna, Matt Wieters, Jedd Gyorko and Matt Carpenter. Ozuna hit his 16th and Wieters his second in as many games in the second inning. Gyorko hit a two-run shot and Carpenter hit a pinch-hit homer in the seventh. The four homers produced all five of the Cardinals’ runs … Paul Goldschmidt and Paul DeJong flopped places in the batting order with DeJong hitting second and Goldschmidt third. Goldschmidt was one of three Cardinals with two hits, a pair of singles … Kolten Wong hit leadoff and was hitless in four at-bats. The Cardinals have not had a hit out of their leadoff hitter in the last six games, a total of 26 at-bats.
On the mound: Hudson allowed just one run over six innings, allowing four hits and one unintentional walk while striking out four. He lowered his ERA to 3.94 … The Phillies other two runs were both charged to Carlos Martinez, one of which came after Andrew Miller took over in the eighth inning and gave up an RBI single on the first pitch to Bryce Harper … John Gant finally got out of the inning before Hicks worked a 1-2-3 ninth, thanks in part to Fowler’s catch of a foul ball against the wall in right field. He earned his 11th save.
Key stat: Wieters made his second start in a row while Yadier Molina rested a sore hand. It was the sixth game Wieters has started this season and in those six games he has gone 10-of-21 with two homers and eight RBIs.
Worth noting: Carpenter’s homer was the third pinch-hit homer of his career and was also the third pinch-hit homer of the season for the Cardinals … The Cardinals expect Molina to be able to play when they start the series against the Cubs on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
Looking ahead: Miles Mikolas will get the start in the opener against the Cubs, with Jack Flaherty scheduled to start on Saturday and Adam Wainwright on Sunday.
