Rants Daily: Greene launches two homers to back Wainwright in Cardinals 8-1 win over Astros

Tyler Greene was unable to secure the second base job coming out of Spring Training, but a couple more performances like yesterday’s and he may well put the bug in Mike Matheny‘s ear again.

Greene went 3-for-3 with two homers, a double, three runs scored, four RBIs and a stolen base. Greene’s efforts alone were enough for Adam Wainwright (2-3) to work with. He pitched seven innings of one-run ball. Wainwright allowed seven hits, a walk and struck out seven, garnering his second straight victory, an 8-1 pummeling of the Houston Astros.

As is becoming customary, the Cardinals jumped out to the lead in the first inning. Allen Craig hit his first home run of the season with Matt Holliday aboard giving the Redbirds a 2-0 lead.

The Cards then scored one in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth to make the score 6-0. The Astros were held in check by Wainwright until the bottom of the fourth inning when he uncorked a wild pitch scoring Carlos Lee. Lee had reached on a single and moved to third on a hit from Jed Lowrie and force out off the bat of Travis Buck.

The Cardinals scored twice more on an RBI single by Rafael Furcal in the sixth inning and Greene’s second homer in the eighth, a solo shot to left which made the score 8-1.

The Cards win averted a sweep, brought their record to 17-11 and maintained a 2.5 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds.

NOTEWORTHY

• There is no new word on the return of Lance Berkman. When he recently tried to sprint he felt pain so he stopped the workout.
• The series loss for the Cardinals was only their second of the season.

TODAY’S GAME

Lance Lynn tries to remain undefeated and become MLB’s first pitcher to six wins tonight in Arizona against Joe Saunders and the Diamondbacks.

MY TWO CENTS

For what it’s worth, it was nice at least for one day to see Tyler Greene demonstrate why the club remains high on him. He has a unique quality to provide power and speed.

It also shows why it is important for him to get playing time. He may not start for another few days if Matheny continues a rotation, but if Matheny wants to go with the hot hand or simply reward Greene, he may be back in the lineup tonight.

If Greene’s name gets penciled in tonight and he gets a couple hits and shows his stuff on the bases, maybe he gets a third. The position is wide open still. Matheny undoubtedly will get at-bats for Daniel Descalso and Skip Schumaker at the position, but there is the chance that one of the three gets a majority of the starts.

Early last week it looked like it would be Schumaker, but maybe Greene can force himself back to the forefront. He’ll need to be consistent though. If he goes 0-for-4 tonight, or in his next start, then it looks like his outburst was an isolated game and not a trend in production.

The position is still up for grabs as far as I can see, just waiting for someone to string together a bunch of good performances. Greene needs to make his case and yesterday was a start in the right direction.

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