The St. Louis Cardinals hammered out 16 hits en route to a 15-6 win over the Oakland A’s Saturday night at McAfee Coliseum.
The big inning for the Cardinals was the 5 th , when they scored 10 runs. Four of them came on a grand slam home run by Chris Duncan, his twelfth homer of the season. Nick Swisher and Mark Ellis hit home runs for Oakland.
So Taguchi had a hot bat, driving in 3 runs on 4 hits.
Cards’ starter Todd Wellemeyer lasted only 3 1/3 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 6 hits. Russ Springer (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning in relief to earn the victory. Oakland starter Lenny DiNardo (2-3) gave up 5 earned runs in 3 2/3 innings to take the loss.
The Cardinals (29-36) and the A’s (37-30) play again Sunday afternoon in the Bay Area. Anthony Reyes (0-8) goes to the mound for the Redbirds against Oakland’s Joe Kennedy (2-4).