TORONTO — In the first half of the season, the Cardinals showed they could win in a variety of ways, but best of all when they got a stout start from a pitcher and some muscle from the lineup.
As the second half opens, getting neither is one sure way to lose, and big.
The Toronto Blue Jays greeted their interleague visitors with a continued show of force, building off a series of thunderous victories in Boston for a 10-3 victory Tuesday night at Rogers Centre. The Cardinals inched and clawed their back from a difficult start to tie the game, only to see it vaporized by George Springer’s grand slam. The Blue Jays’ leadoff hitter connected in the sixth inning for his seventh career grand slam to turn what was a tie game at the start of the inning into a blowout.
The loss was the Cardinals’ third in four games since the All-Star break.
They’ve allowed 25 runs in those losses.
Before the Blue Jays sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning to assert themselves, the Cardinals struck for an early lead. Dylan Carlson hit a solo home run for a 1-0 lead and his fifth of the season. Playing in the series with the team’s two top home run, the Cardinals must rely on offense from other sources — or pitching to suppress the hottest hitting team in the land. They got neither. Toronto had seven hits off starter Andre Pallante before the right-hander got his fourth out. And two timely home runs put the Jays ahead, again and again.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer in the first inning to erase the Cardinals’ only lead of the game. Springer put the game out of reach with his shot in the sixth.
The Cardinals loaded the bases in the ninth inning and had two cracks at turning that opportunity into runs. Tyler O’Neill, playing for the first time as a pro in his home country, put the last pitch of the game deep toward right field. Springer tracked the ball down at the wall to keep O’Neill shy of tidying up the score.
