For the last few days, St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny and other players on the team have stated they were just one big hit away from taking off. This afternoon, Jose Martinez provided what could be a launching point, as he smacked a grand slam to key their 13-4 win over Cincinnati.
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“It feels great, especially when you’re trying to get something going,” said Martinez afterwards. “Our offense has been trying to figure it out. We’ve had a couple of close games that just needed that big hit, but today everybody had a different mentality. Came here to play and everything went well.”
After a scoreless top half of the 1st, the Cardinals found themselves down 3-0 after a Joey Votto 3-run homer off Adam Wainwright. But they responded with five consecutive hits in the top of the 2nd to take a 4-3 lead.
“I know Waino got a tough start, but we went out there the next inning and tried to be aggressive,” said Martinez. “But it was the 1st inning. We got more eight more innings…so we took it pitch by pitch and everything went well.”
“To answer with four right there is huge,” said Matheny. “Guys just taking good at-bats. Hand it off to the next guy and not try to do too much. Then we get an opportunity to have that big 9-run inning. And Jose. We needed that big hit, right? We talked about that, you guys are tired of hearing me say that, but it was a good time to have one.”
That 9-run inning was the 4th, as 13 Cardinals batter came to the plate.
“He got us started too with that hard it double,” reminded Matheny of Martinez in the 2nd inning. “He’s got the potential to hit the long ball, but he also puts together good at-bats. He’ll take his walk and just kind of grind through them.”
The grand slam was the first of Martinez’ big league career.
photo credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports
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