During his brief time with the Cardinals since his call-up on July 21st, Stephen Piscotty has been very even-keel, but following his two-run double on Wednesday the rookie let out a roar of emotion at second base.
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“Yeah, I let it all out today,” he laughed, adding that he has snuck in a couple of fist-pumps previously this year. “We’ve had some tough games and we’ve kind of missed a little bit of that excitement. That was no time to hold it back and I just wanted to let it out. That was fun.”
The two runs put the Cardinals on top for a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs and ended a three-game losing streak.
“You can’t help but feel the cumulative effect of a few that haven’t gone your way,” said Mike Matheny. “This will be a much happier flight had things gone otherwise.”
Mark Reynolds led off the 8th inning with a walk and Greg Garcia delivered his team-leading 8th pinch-hit of the season. Matt Carpenter followed with an RBI single to score Reynolds and then Piscotty drove home Garcia and Carpenter for the final tallies.
“This team has performed so well, just from a pure mathematical perspective, you’re bound to have times like this,” pointed out Piscotty. “It’s no reason to panic. We’re in the best division in baseball right now–you have to give yourself credit for what you’ve done and just let all the noise kind of stay away. There’s no panic here, we’re fine. We’re going to take this momentum and hopefully have a great road trip.”
But even for a Stanford-educated individual, putting that philosophy into play can be easier said than done.
“There’s emotion that can get in the way, but I think with this club that doesn’t happen,” Piscotty agreed. “And I think that’s why we’ve been so good. We had those two games in San Diego that we dropped and then we had probably the best stretch of games after that since I’ve been up here. Hopefully, we’re going to do that right now.”
Fourteen of Piscotty’s 30 RBIs have come in the 7th inning or later and this 5th game-winning RBI ties him for the most amongst all rookies since the All-Star break.
The win improved the Cardinals record to 88-51 on the season.
photo credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
