ST. LOUIS — Nolan Gorman’s second career two-home run game helped spark a pair of big innings as the Cardinals drubbed Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching to the tune of nine runs on 16 hits in a series-clinching victory on the opening weekend of the season.
Brendan Donovan and Alec Burleson also crushed home runs as the Cardinals offense got started early on its way to a 9-4 win over the Blue Jays in front of an announced sellout crowd of 45,525 at Busch Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinals offense chased Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt from the game before he could get through the fourth inning. They tagged him for nine runs on 10 hits, including four home runs, in 3 1/3 innings. The Cardinals did not walk nor did they strikeout against Bassitt.
The nine earned runs allowed by Bassitt without a walk or a strikeout were the most since former Cardinals pitcher Mark Moulder gave up nine to the Chicago White Sox on June 20, 2006.
Through their first three games, the Cardinals had 41 hits.
Jumping on Bassitt early
The Cardinals tried to ruin Blue Jays right-hander Bassitt’s debut with his new club in short order. Donovan smashed his second home run of the season, his first leadoff home run, on the first pitch Bassitt threw.
Donovan lofted a first-pitch changeup over the right-center field wall. The next batter, Burleson, crushed an 0-1 pitch over the left field wall to give the Cardinals back-to-back home runs for the first time this season. They grabbed a two-run lead by the time Bassitt had thrown three pitches.
Burleson’s home run marked his second in the majors and the first against a non-position player. His lone home run last season came against LA Dodgers infielder Hanser Alberto.
The Cardinals offense wasn’t done battering the former New York Mets and Oakland Athletics hurler.
The first three batters of the inning reached base after Paul Goldschmidt blistered a single into left field. Nolan Arenado hit into a double play to keep the inning from snowballing even more on Bassitt, but Willson Contreras’ single followed by a towering Nolan Gorman home run, the third of the inning, gave the Cardinals a 4-0 lead before they’d reached the bottom third of the batting order.
Gorman’s home run, his first of the season, went an estimated 446 feet. He was the third left-handed hitter to bat in the inning and the third to homer.
Four of the five hits in the bottom of the first had exit velocities exceeding 100 mph.
Blue Jays rally quickly against Montgomery
After the Cardinals grabbed a four-run lead in the bottom of the first, starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery allowed three runs in the top of the second to erase most of the breathing room the offense had afforded Montgomery.
The Blue Jays scored three runs on three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly. They had just one extra-base hit in that frame.
A leadoff single by Dalton Varsho on a flare over the third baseman Arenado and into left field seemed relatively-harmless softly-hit ball, but then Montgomery walked Alejandro Kirk on a questionable check swing on a 3-2 pitch. Then Matt Chapman lined an RBI double into left-center field to get the Blue Jays their first run.
Whit Merrifield’s sacrifice fly scored a second run and allowed Chapman to advance from second to third and slide in ahead of center fielder Dylan Carlson’s throw to third. Danny Jansen’s groundball through the right side of the infield gave the Blue Jays a three-run inning.
The Cardinals scored three in the third and two in the fourth to stretch the lead back out.
Contreras recovered nicely
Contreras started at catcher for the first time since he took a 103-mph sinker off the right knee on a wild pitch from reliever Jordan Hicks in the eighth inning of the season opener. The bruised knee forced him to leave that game and kept him out of Saturday’s game, though he expressed optimism he’d be back in the lineup as soon as Sunday when he spoke with reporters on Saturday.
True to his word, Contreras returned to the starting lineup and caught all nine innings behind the plate for the Cardinals.
He went 2 for 4 at the plate with a single, a double and a run scored. His two hardest hit balls on the day were actually his outs. He hit a 102-mph flyout to center in the third inning a 109.7-mph grounder to third base to end the sixth inning.
Bullpen brigade comes through in series finale
The Cardinals came into the day with some uncertainty surrounding who’d be available out of the bullpen. Right-hander Giovanny Gallegos hadn’t pitched yet this season due to back tightness he experienced in advance of the season opener.
His availability on Sunday wasn’t going to be known until shortly before game time. Gallegos played catch and threw in the bullpen prior to the game.
The Cardinals used relievers Ryan Helsley, Jordan Hicks, Andre Pallante and Drew VerHagen in each of the first two games. While there was an off day between games, using any of those pitchers on Sunday would give them three outings in four days and limit their usage in the following series against the Atlanta Braves.
The Cardinals closed out Sunday’s win with a combination of Chris Stratton (1 2/3 innings), Packy Naughton (two innings), the last two remaining relievers who hadn’t pitched aside from Gallegos.
