Cardinals Recap: Randal Grichuk leads St. Louis to victory

Randal Grichuk homered twice and drove in six runs as the St. Louis Cardinals throttled the New York Mets at home on Saturday night by a 12-2 final.

The Cardinals opened things with a bang, scoring four times in the bottom of the first against St. Louis starting pitcher Bartolo Colon, who, after a strong start to the campaign, has shown his age of late.

Colon (9-8, 4.86) was roughed up for seven runs in just 4 1/3 innings of work Saturday, as he allowed eight hits and five walks in the loss.

His counterpart, veteran right-hander John Lackey, was solid, scattering 10 hits over seven innings of one-run ball. From there, Miguel Socolovich and Randy Choate took over, finishing things off.

Carrying a 4-0 lead into the fifth, Jason Heyward and Mark Reynolds plated runs before Grichuk unloaded on a two-run shot off Carlos Torres to make it 8-0 Cardinals.

New York veteran Michael Cuddyer accounted for the first Mets run in the sixth, hitting a solo home run to left – his eighth on the year. A Ruben Tejada double in the eighth accounted for the only other New York tally on the night.

After adding another run in the eighth on an error by Tejada, Grichuk went deep again – this time with a three-run shot, capping a spectacular six-RBI night at the dish.

St. Louis (58-33) pounded out 15 hits in the win, and while they outscored New York 12-2, the Mets still managed an even dozen hits in the loss.

Perhaps as impressive as Grichuk was the work turned in by Heyward, who went 5-for-5 with two RBI in the win, raising his average to .288 in the win.

What’s Next:

The Mets and Cardinals will conclude their series on Sunday afternoon with a 1:15 p.m. CT first pitch at Busch Stadium.

Both teams are yet to announce their respective starters.

Next: Cardinals' Siegrist under appreciated by fans