Cardinals revive offense
St. Louis Cardinals' Greg Garcia in action during a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies
WASHINGTON >> After all the negative attention they’ve received this week, it certainly felt good for the Cardinals to bust out of their slump.
Randal Grichuk homered and had three hits, and former Hawaii player Kolten Wong and Yadier Molina also went deep as St. Louis set season highs for runs and hits in a 12-4 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
The Cardinals avoided their second three-game losing streak of the season while breaking out of the offensive funk that followed Tuesday’s news of a federal investigation into whether club officials illegally hacked into the Houston Astros’ player database.
St. Louis pounded out 16 hits, including six for extra bases. Jhonny Peralta doubled and had three RBIs, Mark Reynolds had a two-run double and 10 Cardinals got hits.
“It’s good to see these kind of days to give everybody a good shot in the arm, confidence-wise, about our offense,” manager Mike Matheny said.
After being called up earlier Friday, former Hawaii player Greg Garcia batted 2-for-2 and made a diving stop at second base for the Cardinals. Garcia, Wong’s teammate at Hawaii, and Xavier Scruggs were summoned from Triple-A Memphis.
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Garcia played in 14 games with the Cardinals in 2014 before returning to Triple-A for 2015. He batted .313 with 25 RBIs at Memphis.
“You can’t hold these guys down for too long,” Garcia told MLB.com. “There’s too many good hitters and good players in this locker room. It’s a fun team to watch.”
Two-run homers by Wong and Molina highlighted a four-run second inning that gave the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Peralta drove in Matt Carpenter and Lyons — both of whom walked — to put St. Louis up by six. And St. Louis scored five runs on six hits against Justin De Fratus in the fifth.
“Tough, tough game,” said Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. “Not much out there going right. We fell behind early and with not swinging the bats, it was a tough combination. Right from the get-go it was a tough game.”
Phillippe Aumont struggled in a spot start for injured Phillies ace Cole Hamels.
