Pham Powers Cardinals Over Brewers

Well, how about that game? It had it all, power, pitching, defense, and some heartburn material.

One of the bigger stories with this team of late has been the questionable offense. I talked about it at length the other day and said that things should be getting better. One of the players that I stated that needed to see the lineup was Tommy Pham.

Finally Mike Matheny agreed with me and put him in the lineup, two games removed from hitting a two run home run in the game against the Reds on Sunday. Even though he still left Jon Jay in the lineup, it was nice to see Pham crack the lineup. 

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How did Tommy Pham do, you might ask? Oh he just had a 3-4 night with two two run home runs, a triple, and the only out was a ball that was just a few feet away from being his third home run of the night. To say he’s got a hot bat right now would be saying it lightly. After his second homer tonight he had hit three home runs in his last three at bats.

Pham has absolutely caught fire recently and he has got to be penciled in the lineup until he proves otherwise. If he continues to do so, look for him to have a good shot at cracking the postseason roster.

Pham wasn’t the only player who had a good night offensively. Matt Carpenter had himself a 3-4 night as well with two doubles and his 22nd home run.

Pham’s second home run put the Cardinals up 5-0 on the last place Brewers. Giving the Cardinals something they had not had much recently in a comfortable lead.

Just when you feel like you may be able to coast through watching a game and relax a little bit, Jaime Garcia let the first three reach in the bottom of the fourth inning and allowed Elian Herrera to drive in Khris Davis for their first run of the night. Enter in Martin Maldonado, who then took advantage of a belt high first pitch fastball for a three run home run to right field making the game a whole lot more interesting at 5-4.

Garcia was able to work through the rest of the fourth and into the seventh inning without much in the way of trouble before being replaced with one out in the inning. He finished with a line of 6.1 IP 8 H 4 ER and 4 Strikeouts. Not a bad line considering his last outing and that it was just one bad pitch that got him.

Thanks to Trevor Rosenthal‘s quick work of the Brewers hitters in the 9th, Garcia was able to improve to 9-6 with an ERA of 2.52. The Cardinals record is now 91-54 and looking better after last week’s slump. Also, thanks to the rival Chicago Cubs their lead in the central is now up to four games over the Pirates and seven over the Cubs.

The magic number to clinch the division is now 14.