St. Louis Cardinal hitters had no problem scoring runs, evident by the San Francisco Giants giving up 13 hits and four homers in their 9-4 loss in St. Louis on Saturday.
Right fielder Alec Burleson had a career-game for the Cardinals, hitting 3 for 4 with two homers while driving in five runs. Rookie shortstop Mason Winn was 3 for 5 and drove in a run.
Starting pitcher Jordan Hicks struggled in his return to St. Louis as he gave up five earned runs on six hits in four innings.
Michael Conforto was the lone bright spot for the Giants as he hit 2 for 4 and had three RBIs.
“We scored three runs in the first and we felt pretty good about where we are,” Giants manager Bob Melvin told reporters after the game. “All of a sudden they hit a two-run homer and they had a couple more big swings which could change the game in a hurry.”
Soler got the Giants on the board first when his two-out RBI single in the top of the first inning brought home Brett Wisely. Two batters later, Conforto knocked in Soler and Matt Chapman to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.
The Cardinals responded in their half of the inning when Paul Goldschmidt smashed Hicks’ pitch to left center field, scoring Alec Burleson and making the score 3-2. It was the five-time Silver Slugger’s 350th career homer.
Conforto drove in his third run of the game after he doubled to right field, bringing home Chapman and giving the Giants a 4-2 cushion in the top of the third.
“He’s made an adjustment and he looks like he’s much shorter to the ball right now,” Melvin said about Conforto’s performance. “Today was a big day for him to feel like he was earlier this season when he came back from the IL.”
Hicks’ struggles showed in the fourth inning as the Cardinals shifted the momentum in their favor.
With two outs and no one on, Dylan Carlson hit a single and Mason Wynn hit a double to put runners on second and third. Burleson hit a three-run bomb off of Hicks’ 94 mph sinker, giving the Cardinals a 5-4 lead.
Saturday’s game was played in high heat as it was 94 degrees Fahrenheit with 41% humidity. Hicks said the conditions started to take a toll on him as he got later into his start.
“I would say my legs got pretty dead after the third to be honest,” Hicks said. “I could always see when I was on the Cardinals that other pitchers looked pretty dead out there. When you get them up to 20-30 pitches and that’s when we usually do our damage.”
Burleson found more success at the plate in the sixth after Hicks came out of the game. He hit a two-run homer to center field, this time off relief pitcher Sean Hjelle, giving St. Louis a three-run cushion.
Saturday’s game was Burleson’s first multi-homer performance of his career.
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Brendan Donovan’s solo home run iced the game for the Cardinals in the seventh inning as St. Louis took a commanding 8-4 lead.
In his return from Triple-A, outfielder Luis Matos went 1 for 4 as the ninth hitter in the lineup. With Mike Yastrzemski on the IL with a left oblique strain, Matos will likely get more chances to prove he could stay on the big league roster.
The Giants dropped their fourth straight game and will finish the series against St. Louis on Sunday. San Francisco ace Logan Webb is expected to get the start.
