Tommy Pham continued his happy homecoming by driving in two runs and scoring twice as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers 10-1 Wednesday afternoon.
Pham, who spent parts of five seasons with the Cardinals to start his career, hit a grand slam Tuesday on his first game since arriving in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. With his three hits Wednesday, Pham is now 4-for-6 with three runs and six RBIs since his return.
Brendan Donovan drove in three runs and Alec Burleson and Michael Siani each drove in two as the Cardinals won for the third time in four games.
Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy (1-0) won his major league debut while allowing one run on five hits in seven innings. He struck out three and walked one.
Rangers starting pitcher Andrew Heaney (4-11) allowed six runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out two and walked one.
The Cardinals moved ahead 3-0 in the second inning. Paul Goldschmidt, Pham and Donovan hit one-out singles to produce one run. Pedro Pages followed with a run-scoring fielder’s choice grounder and Siani followed with an RBI sacrifice bunt.
St. Louis increased its lead to 8-0 in the fifth. Siani led off with a single and took third on Willson Contreras’ double. Burleson followed with a two-run single. Nolan Arenado greeted reliever Jose Leclerc with a single. One out later, Pham laced a two-run double and Donavan hit an RBI single to break the game open.
McGreevy allowed just one hit in the first five innings — a two-out double by Marcus Semien in the first inning.
The Rangers finally broke through in the sixth inning with singles by Josh Smith, Corey Seager and Semien to cut their deficit to 8-1.
Singles by Arenado, Goldschmidt and Pham, Donovan’s sacrifice fly and Siani’s single in the seventh made it 10-1.
–Field Level Media