The Cardinals have turned the power on. Led by three home runs including Troy Glaus’ 22nd of the year, the Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-2 and gain a game on Milwaukee in the Wild Card.
The Brewers lead is now 5.5 games after they lost in 10 innings to New York, but as far as the Cardinals, their big bats continue to take Diamondback pitching deep. Glaus, Yadier Molina, and Felipe Lopez followed up yesterday’s four home run performance to back Adam Wainwright who pitched into the sixth inning for the win. Wainwright gave up just one run on three hits and struck out seven.
Chris Carpenter also made his first appearance since early August by pitching an inning in relief. He gave up two hits, but struck out one and gave up now runs.
After breaking a bone in his left hand, Joe Mather’s season is over. Mather will have surgery to remove the hook of his hamate bone in his left wrist. Mather saw a hand specialist in Phoenix on Tuesday who determined the surgery should be completed.
This injury is pretty rare, but has happened before. Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals had this surgery last year and his home run total is down a bit, but his average (.281) is right on his career pace.
