Tommy Pham hit a pinch-hit grand slam in his homecoming to power the St. Louis Cardinals over the visiting Texas Rangers 8-1 on Tuesday.
Pham spent 4 1/2 seasons with the Cardinals to start his career. He returned to St. Louis in a trade with the Chicago White Sox on Monday and hit the homer in his first at-bat back with the team.
Masyn Winn also hit a homer for the Cardinals, and Alec Burleson had two runs and an RBI.
Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn (6-4) earned his first career win against the Rangers, giving him a victory over all 30 teams. He held them to one run on three hits in five innings while striking out three and walking one.
Wyatt Langford’s homer accounted for the Rangers’ only run.
Texas starting pitcher Max Scherzer (2-4) allowed three runs on four hits in four innings. He fanned five and walked one.
Winn hit Scherzer’s first pitch of the game over the left-center-field wall to put the Cardinals up 1-0.
Langford tied the game 1-1 with his second-inning homer. With one out in the same frame, Nathaniel Lowe walked and Josh Jung hit a single, but Lynn retired the next two batters to prevent further trouble.
The Cardinals regained the lead 2-1 in their half of the inning. Matt Carpenter dropped a double down the left field line and scored on Brandon Crawford’s double into the right field corner.
St. Louis upped its lead to 3-1 in the third inning when Burleson walked and scored on a hit-and-run double by Lars Nootbaar.
The Cardinals played small ball to start their five-run outburst against reliever Cody Bradford in the fifth inning. Michael Siani reached on a bunt single, stole second base, took third on a groundout and scored on Burleson’s single through the pulled-in infield.
Willson Contreras hit a single and Paul Goldschmidt drew a two-out walk before Pham’s grand slam made it 8-1.
–Field Level Media
