St. Louis entered Saturday afternoon looking to even up the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who just the night before scored double-digit runs en route to an 11-7 victory. The loss had dropped starter Carlos Martinez to 4-4 on the season.
Thanks to a trio of home runs, and seven scoreless innings from starter Mike Leake, the Cardinals improved to 23-20 with a 6-2 victory.
Leake, who started the season 0-3, continued his hot streak on Saturday, retiring eight consecutive batters between the second and fourth innings. He notched his third straight win, and first at home as a member of the Cardinals. During this three-game winning streak, Leake has an ERA of 0.85.
A well-known hitting pitcher, Leake doubled in the sixth inning, and also made a spectacular barehanded defensive play during the game. His final line for the afternoon was:Â 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 91 pitches (with 64 of the pitches going for strikes).
As for the offense, it was pure power for St. Louis. In the second inning, the first of three home runs came when Jedd Gyorko launched his fifth homer of the season, a two-run shot to give the Cardinals an early 2-0 lead.
Later, in the sixth inning, Matt Adams hit an opposite field home run (a solo shot), which was later followed by a two-run home in the seventh inning by Yadier Molina, his first home run of the year, and first since Aug. 19, 2015 against the Giants.
In the top of the ninth inning, Trevor Rosenthal entered the game in a non-save situation, where he allowed a two-run home run to Rickie Weeks, Jr. (the first home run of the year for Weeks). Rosenthal, however, bounced back as the Cardinals won 6-2.
On Sunday, Jaime Garcia and Zack Greinke will go at it in the series finale between St. Louis and Arizona.
