HOUSTON _ The adjective Cardinals manager Mike Matheny has recently used often to describe his team's offense is "resilient." Too often, he added, the lineup has had to earn that label by overcoming early deficits, hitting up hill.
The starters fall behind and the batters have to catch up.
Have power, will rally.
For the third time in as many games, the Cardinals overcame a deficit of two runs in the first half of the game and pounded away to pull away for a victory. Jedd Gyorko smacked a three-run home run in the sixth inning to muscle the Cardinals to a n8-5 victory Tuesday against Houston at Minute Maid Park.
The former division rival and now interleague host had taken a 4-2 lead after the fourth inning. Then the resiliency started.
Tommy Pham tied the game with his ninth homer of the season, and Gyorko catapulted the Cardinals ahead with his 18th homer.
In between starter Jaime Garcia's exit after five innings and Seung Hwan Oh's work in the ninth inning, rookie Alex Reyes got his first look at a higher-leverage, shorter relief role. He struck out four in two scoreless innings and froze the game where he inherited it, with the Cardinals ahead by Gyorko's homer.
Back in Houston for a rare visit at a ballpark that houses some October memories, the Cardinals took an early 2-0 lead, but saw it fritter away as starter Garcia searched for his footing throughout his five-inning appearance.
Down by two entering the fifth inning, the Cardinals began to jackhammer away at Houston's lead. Randal Grichuk, a Houston-area native playing at Minute Maid for the first time in his career, doubled with one out in the fifth, and he scored on Pham's home run tie the game at 4. In the sixth inning, No. 3 hitter Matt Carpenter drew a leadoff walk from Dallas Keuchel and Brandon Moss followed with a line-drive single.
That chased Keuchel from the game before he could get an out in the sixth. Houston's lefty and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, had pitched fewer than six innings only once since mid-June. He entered Tuesday's start fresh from a shutout of the Rangers during which he allowed only three hits and struck out seven. He wasn't around to see the fifth and sixth runs the Cardinals got from Tuesday to score.
That view went to reliever Pat Neshek.
The former Cardinals' sidearmer inherited two runners and a tie game when he relieved Keuchel in the sixth inning. He retired the first batter he faced _ Yadier Molina _ but Molina's groundball to first base was sharp enough and just far enough for the first baseman to go that Carpenter scored to break the tie. Two batters after Molina, Gyorko followed with his 18th home run of the season. When Matheny set up his lineup for Tuesday's game, he wanted to get Jhonny Peralta at-bats as designated hitter "to keep his bat going" and play Gyorko because his bat his going. The Cardinals' infielder has led all major-leaguers in homers the past month, and few have gone as far and put the Cardinals that far ahead as his shot Tuesday.
For a ballpark that has a train and hill in center field, one of the other quirks of Minute Maid is a balcony overhang above center field. It's about two stories up. A fan on the balcony decided that it was better to make a play for Gyorko's ball than it was to hold onto to his beer. Up and out went Gyorko's three-run homer, down came the beer.
Center fielder Jake Marisnick had a better chance of catching the beverage.
It splashed on the warning track near him.
The five-run burst in the sixth inning had echoes of the weekend jags against the Cubs. Both of those extended rallies happen in the eighth inning, but homers were a part of them, just as they've been a part of almost everything the Cardinals have done this season. Grichuk had a grand slam in the eighth Saturday, Stephen Piscotty had a three-run shot in the eighth Sunday, and Gyorko joined the brigade with his three-run homer.
In the ninth inning, Jose Altuve got his 1,000th career hit. He did so in his 786th game, setting a new franchise record and breaking the previous one for swiftest to 1,000 hits by 103 games.
