Rants Daily: Cardinals pound Pirates behind Beltran’s two homers, seven RBIs

St. Louis Cardinals’ right fielder Carlos Beltran erupted for four hits, two of them homers and drove in seven runs in a 12-3 pounding of A.J. Burnett and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The victory moved the Cardinals record to 16-8 and they have opened up a 4.5 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central.

Lance Lynn became the first National League pitcher to reach five wins on the season. He threw 6.2 innings, allowed three hits, a walk and two earned runs while striking out six.

The Cardinals jumped all over Burnett from the start of the game. Three straight singles from Rafael Furcal, Jon Jay and Matt Holliday accounted for the first run. Beltran, the teams’ cleanup hitter, launched a three-run homer to right field making the score 4-0.

In the second inning the Redbirds scored three more runs on RBI singles from Holliday and Beltran, plus a RBI ground out by David Freese which made the score 7-1.

The Cards put the finishing touches on Burnett’s nightmare with five more runs in the third, highlighted by Beltran’s second homer of the night another three-run blast. Initially, the call on the field was a double. After the umpires reviewed the call, the play was overturned and Beltran finished circling the bases. Beltran’s 7 RBIs is a career high and it was his 31st multi-homer game of his career.

NOTEWORTHY

• The Cardinals 17 hits are a season high.
• According to MLB.com reporter Jenifer Langosch the Cardinals have scored 51 of their 135 runs off homers.
• The Redbirds’ win ensured them of their eighth series win in nine series.

TODAY’S GAME

Jake Westbrook will take on Erik Bedard in this afternoon’s series finale.

MY TWO CENTS

For what it’s worth, Carlos Beltran picked a fine way to get out of a 3-for-32 funk. Even with the dismal performances leading up to yesterday, Beltran kept plugging which is the sign of a man who’s been there before.

Baseball is a game of balance. Hitters have good stretches and bad. In the end they hope to get a hit 30% of the time, get on base 40% of the time and create runs one way or another. Veterans, especially those with a resume like Beltran’s, know this. They just need to continue to work in the cages when the balls aren’t dropping.

The key is not to get discouraged and that is not easy. But, one thing Beltran has going for him being a part of the Cardinals, is that he does not have the weight of the team on his shoulders alone. His teammates had picked him up over the last several games and now he hopes to return the favor with a stretch of peak performance beginning with last night’s outburst.

It was a night to remember for Beltran. My guess is it will not be the last game where Beltran puts the team on his back and carries them to a victory. The best part is now he doesn’t have to try to do so.

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