ST. LOUIS _ What stood tall about Paul Goldschmidt's game against the Kansas City Royals on Monday wasn't just his home run, his three RBIs, or his four times on base to help key a series of rallies for the Cardinals.
It's this: He's been doing it all home stand.
For the second time in three days, Goldschmidt reached base four times and in five consecutive games he's reached base at least twice. He's done it often by walk, sometimes by single, and on Monday, in his fourth plate appearance, he did it with a trot.
Goldschmidt's two-run homer punctuated a 9-3 victory against the Royals at Busch Stadium.
In his second game back from the COVID-19 injury list, Paul DeJong also had three RBIs. His sacrifice fly was the game's lone run for the first four innings as starters, Jack Flaherty and Brad Keller seesawed, through zeroes. The game ruptured when the Royals' bullpen did. DeJong tagged a two-run double as part of a five-run, 10-batter fifth inning that widened the gap and scooted the Cardinals toward their third consecutive victory.
They improved to 24-23 all-time in St. Louis against KC.
They've won 12 of the past 15 against the Royals, dating back to 2017.
Flaherty (2-0) pitched five scoreless innings before his pitch count topped out. He did not walk a batter. He limited the Royals to one hit.
The Cardinals were able to exploit Goldschmidt's streak of reaching base because Brad Miller was on base four times ahead of him in the game. Miller had three hits. And Matt Carpenter, cleanup hitter, was hit once and walked once with runners in scoring position to invite DeJong to do the damage.
