On one of the more humid nights of the year, the St. Louis Cardinals bats were also red-hot on Saturday night as they beat the New York Mets 12-2 at Busch Stadium.
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Of the Cardinals fifteen hits, Randal Grichuk (3-3) and Jason Heyward (5-5) combined to go 8-8 with 8 RBIs.
“Pretty special moment–I’ve never had the curtain call done before, obviously, in the big leagues,” said Grichuk, who was sent up to the top step after hitting his second home run of the night. “That’s something you kind of look at and you hope one day you get it. I couldn’t hear anything–I just heard Mike yelling at me to go up there. Pretty special moment.”
Grichuk joins Frank Robinson (’61) as the only two players in Major League history with two home runs, a single, HBP, and IBB in one game.
“I’ve hit two homers before and got overshadowed,” laughed Heyward. “Chipper (Jones) had a five hit, ironically, and that happened there. It’s a good night for everybody, honestly. We jumped on them early and kept passing the bat down the line.”
Heyward’s five hits tied his career-high and raised his batting average to .288 for the season. Following his single in the 8th inning, though, he suffered some cramping and came out of the game.
“None,” said Matheny on his level of concern of the situation. “No, he even said I could stay in in a different game. Fortunately, we had one guy left on the bench.
“We were going to take him out defensively anyhow if he made an out right there, we’d have kept Pham in the game. But not worth the risk because it’s hard for a guy like him to back off if he had a chance maybe to score.”
“Yeah, I would have tried to,” confirmed Heyward. “That at-bat, after I fouled a pitch off, I felt a cramp and then tried to run more, it was a little risky so I knew, right situation to get out of the game.”
Besides sitting in the cold-tub, Heyward received a couple of IVs following the game.
“I’m good,” he assured. “I’ve just been under the weather the last couple of days. Obviously, it’s hot–that’s nothing new to me, but it’s really tough to stay hydrated when you’re not feeling well.”
“Sweating that much makes it hard,” continued Heyward, who was unsure if he would be in the lineup on Sunday.
“We’ll see what happens–whatever Mike says about tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll see what’s going on in the morning.”
photo credit: Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports
