7 elite performances from St. Louis Cardinals sweep over Rockies

The St. Louis Cardinals needed a jolt of inspiration, and they appeared to get that this week as they swept their three-game set against the Colorado Rockies. 

What a fantastic series the Cardinals had this week against the Colorado Rockies. After losing their series in Denver last week, this seemed to be something the Cardinals needed. The Cardinals won Tuesday 5-4, Wednesday 5-1, and Thursday 13-0.

The club worked together as a team and took care of business against a previous team they seemed flummoxed by. The win is a good jump start as the Cardinals travel west for a three-game set this weekend against the Arizona Diamondbacks and off to Chicago for five games in four days starting Monday.

All of the upcoming series seems so crucial to the Cardinals’ season. Get your popcorn ready!

Let’s discuss the perfectly positive moments from this week’s series with the Rockies.

Everything about Thursday’s Game was perfect

That’s right. Everything about Thursday’s game was perfect. It was a great game from Adam Wainwright to Albert Pujols and Lars Nootbaar.

Wainwright and Yadier Molina had their 320th start as a battery, making them five starts away from breaking a record held by Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers at 324 starts. Wainwright is now 9-8 on the season after pitching seven innings Thursday, giving up only three hits and striking out seven while inducing eight swings and misses.

Genesis Cabrera and Chris Stratton each had a clean inning of relief of Wainwright.

The scoring onslaught began for the Cardinals in the first inning. Paul Goldschmidt singled on a grounder to right field, scoring Lars Nootbaar. Nolan Arenado grounded out to first base, scoring Brendan Donovan. Tyler O’Neill singled on a liner to right field, scoring Goldschmidt.

Donovan singled to first base in the second inning, scoring Tommy Edman. Goldschmidt doubled on a fly to left field and deflected by center fielder, Garrett Hampson, scoring Donovan.  Carlson singled to center field in the third inning, scoring Nolan Gorman.

Later in the third inning, with O’Neill, Carlson and Nootbaar on base, Albert Pujols launched a grand slam home run to left field. The blast was the 11th of this season and the 690th of his legendary career.

Just a beautiful swing. The home run traveled 374 feet at 105.1 mph. What a legend!

In the fifth inning, Nootbaar knocked his sixth home run of the season a liner to right field, scoring Carlson. In the seventh inning, Pujols singled to left field, scoring Edman.

Just a fantastic game for the Cardinals. Now let’s look at some other individual performances from this series.