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Cardinals Catalyst Vina Kindles Offensive Surge In Rout Of Giants
Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch
May 11, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO - Leadoff hitter Fernando Vina had been the catalyst for the top offense in baseball, but until Tuesday night, he had been the only Cardinals position player out of 15 not to hit a home run.
Vina joined the club with a three-run, inside-the-park homer to spark an eight-run second inning as the Cardinals stopped the seven-game winning streak of the San Francisco Giants with a 13-6 victory at Pacific Bell Park.
Edgar Renteria and Ray Lankford had solo homers, and J.D. Drew and Craig Paquette had two-run doubles. Mark McGwire had two hits and three walks.
Garrett Stephenson (5-0), who allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, again enjoyed remarkable run support. The Cardinals average 9.6 runs in his starts, opposed to six runs in other games.
"He's gotten a lot of runs, but we may go two months now and not score anything for him," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "I don't think there's any way to explain it. It's a fluke."
Giants starter Russ Ortiz (2-4) entered the game with a 1.54 earned-run average against the Cardinals, but they abused him for two runs in the first inning and eight more in the second.
The scoring started when Vina, who had been batting .412 on the road, blooped a single to center field. Then with Vina running, Renteria singled through the hole vacated by shortstop Rich Aurilia, and Vina moved to third base.
Lankford struck out. With fewer than two out, he had driven in only one runner from third base in eight chances. McGwire, with the infield shifted to the left, singled off the glove of second baseman Jeff Kent. The ball dribbled into left-center field. Vina scored, and Renteria moved to third.
Jim Edmonds struck out. But with Paquette at the plate, Ortiz bounced a breaking ball past catcher Bobby Estalella for a wild pitch, and Renteria scored.
An error by Kent, who ended a personal 68-game errorless streak, paved the way for the Cardinals to score eight runs in the second.
Drew poked a single past third baseman Billy Mueller, and Eli Marrero bounced a potential double-play ball to Mueller, who threw to second, where Kent dropped the ball. Stephenson then put down a sacrifice bunt that advanced the runners.
Vina drove a line drive to right, where Armando Rios jumped but couldn't make the catch. The ball stuck in the base of the wall in right-center field, the deepest part of the park. Drew and Marrero scored easily, and Vina scored without a slide for the team's first inside-the-park homer since Drew had one July 1 in Houston.
Renteria then homered to left field, marking the 10th time the Cardinals had hit back-to-back home runs, compared with four times last season.
Lankford started a second rally in the inning with a single. He advanced on a stolen base and on one of three passed balls in the inning by catcher Estalella, a hero the night before with two homers. McGwire walked, and Ortiz was replaced by Mark Gardner. Edmonds, the first batter Gardner faced, tried to check his swing but nubbed the ball to Gardner's right, and he dropped the ball while trying to make the play as Lankford scored. Paquette flied out, but Drew hit a two-run double to left-center, where Marvin Benard missed the ball on a diving-catch try. Drew scored the final run of the inning after two more passed balls by Estalella.
"It wasn't very much fun out there," Estalella said. "I got crossed up, expecting fastballs and getting curves."
Kent made some amends for his error with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, cutting the lead to 10-2. The Giants, who batted around in the inning, added a third run when Estalella drove in J.T. Snow with a single.
"You almost feel like it's tougher to pitch with such a big lead because you don't throw the same pitches you'd throw in a tight situation," Stephenson said.
Lankford opened the fifth with his seventh homer, off Alan Embree, who had struck him out in a key spot the previous night. Lankford's hit marked the 13th time the Cardinals had homered three or more times in a game.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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