PHILADELPHIA — A show of force by the Cardinals’ offense, led by a flex from Yadier Molina, gave them ample protection for what they had to pull off later.
The Cardinals hit their first back-to-back home runs of the season, then did it again, and Molina became the first Cardinal in at least seven decades to be a part of both sets of homers. The Cardinals’ catcher homered twice and doubled as the club built an early lead and then held on for a 9-4 victory against the Phillies in a four-hour slog Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
They needed it because they needed so much from the bullpen.
In his first start of the season after a spring interrupted by back trouble, lefty Kwang Hyun Kim threw three innings before the Cardinals had a chance to add on runs and chose pinch-hitter ahead of pitcher’s innings. Kim got nine outs. The Cardinals asked the bullpen to get 18. Ryan Helsley (1-0) handled five. Jordan Hicks got five more. The bullpen continues to be warped by the workload as the Cardinals have played 14 games and only once has a starter got an out in the sixth inning.
An outburst of runs, one predicted earlier in the day by manager Mike Shildt, gave the bullpen some margin for error as it covered the leftovers.
A day after the Cardinals’ scoreless streak reached 19 innings and questions continued about the lineup, Shildt brought receipts to the daily pregame talk with St. Louis media. He mentioned where the team ranked in hard-hit rate (first) and in average exit velocity (fourth), and he pointed out how the other teams around the Cardinals are considered some of the finer offenses in the land. The Cardinals’ total runs this season also ranked 12th coming into Saturday’s game. But they got their fits and feasts and stretches of frustrations.
Challenged on the fact that strikeouts aren’t counted in hard-hits or exit velocity, Shildt agreed that they can derail a rally but overall the team can cling to their indicators of hits ahead.
“I don’t want to minimize results,” Shildt said. “I’m not an alibi guy, as you hopefully know. But I do want to rightfully defend the process and realize this game is not always rewarded when it’s done well.”
It took three innings for his lineup to make his point.
With two outs, the Cardinals seized on Phillies’ starter Matt Moore for six runs. The lefty appeared to grip his back and wince during his at-bat earlier in the game against Kim, and his feel for the strike zone left him in the third inning. Paul Goldschmidt opened the rally with a two-out single, the second of his three times on base. Nolan Arenado followed with a walk, and that has been where the Cardinals’ lineup has drifted. Their search for a cleanup hitter has led them to Molina. He homered to take the lead for the Cardinals, 3-1. It swelled to 6-1.
Paul DeJong followed with a 415-foot blast to the tree grove beyond the center-field fence, and the Cardinals' rock-em, sock-em, knock-em from the game inning was underway.
The Cardinals would send 11 batters to the plate in the inning, nine with two outs. Seven consecutive reached base, and the then Kim contributed with a groundball that was misplayed for another run to score.
Arenado and Molina hit back-to-back homers in the fourth to extend the Cardinals’ lead to six runs.
It was when Kim’s spot in the order came up again in the fourth that Shildt made the call to go to pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter and turn the rest of the game over to the Cardinals overtaxed bullpen. The rotation, as a whole, has been stuck at pitching five innings in the past week. Kim appeared to be mired in the same molasses as his first inning teetered against the Phillies. It took the lefty 30 pitches to get three outs, and he dealt with the bases loaded because he hit a batter and walked a batter.
The Phillies turned those troubles into only one run.
On a slider, Kim struck out Matt Joyce for the final out of the inning to leave three runners stranded. In the third inning, Joyce was Kim’s escape hatch again. He got Joyce to swing over a slider after two runs had scored and an error put another runner in scoring position. Kim had steadied his outing with a 14-pitch, perfect second inning, but after throwing 68 pitches through three innings his evening was over.
Helsley did the heavy lifting of getting the Cardinals through the middle inning with six-run lead. And the importance the Cardinals placed on the win to steady themselves during this week of fluctuating offense and haphazard defense was clear when they made the call to the bullpen for the final three outs of the 18 the relievers had to cover.
Alex Reyes, acting closer, got them.
But not with ease.
The Phillies loaded the bases against the right-hander before he could get a second out. That put the tying run on deck. That's as close to home as it got before Reyes cinched the win with a hard line drive to right field caught by Dylan Carlson.
