SAN DIEGO — The Cardinals had found a way to generate baserunners earlier in the game and even ended the long slog for that missing run with a solo homer.
It took a rookie to bring it all together.
Brendan Donovan blasted the Cardinals out of their offensive funk with a grand slam in the seventh inning to send them to a 5-4 victory Thursday against San Diego. Donovan’s first big-league grand slam helped the Cardinals to avoid a series sweep at Petco Park and gave them their first genuine outburst of runs in five days. Lars Nootbaar’s solo homer in the fifth inning ended the Cardinals streak of consecutive innings without an RBI or an earned run at 47.
