PHILADELPHIA _Jedd Gyorko helped the St. Louis Cardinals tie a major league home run record and the game in the ninth inning on Friday night. Then, Randal Grichuk, who has done nothing but crush extra-base hits since his latest recall from Class AAA Memphis, doubled home Jhonny Peralta with the winning run in the 11th as the Cardinals pulled out their third late-inning triumph on this three-city trip with a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Grichuk earlier homer, coupled with that of Gyorko's, had enabled the Cardinals to tie the major league mark of nine straight games of multiple homers. The center fielder has had 10 hits in seven games since coming back from the minors, nine of them for extra bases and the Cardinals have tied their season-long winning streak of five.
Three of those triumphs, the first two in Chicago, have been highlighted by a six-run eighth, a five-run eighth and Friday's two-run ninth that caught the Phils at 3-3.
Gyorko's homer off Jeanmar Gomez was his 19th of the season and 12th of the last month. The Cardinals already had set their club and National League mark for consecutive multiple-homer games but tied four American League teams, including the 2009 New York Yankees.
Yadier Molina singled in front of left fielder Aaron Altherr to open the ninth and was forced by Peralta. Gyorko fouled off a trio of 2-2 pitches before finding a changeup to his liking.
Seung Hwan Oh, called on to pitch more than one inning for the third time in a week, answered that challenge, striking out two and giving up just one hit while working the ninth and 10th for the Cardinals.
Rookie Alex Reyes, who got his first big-league win in Chicago, earned his first save with a scoreless 11th, hitting 100 miles an hour several times. He had to pitch around a two-out single and then a walk.
After retiring 11 hitters in succession, Cardinals righthander Adam Wainwright was tagged for Odubel Herrera's 13th home run of the season and Freddy Galvis' 12trh homer in back-to-back fashion in the sixth inning Friday night as the Philadelphia Phillies broke a tie game and took a 3-1 lead over the Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park.
Until that inning, Wainwright never had allowed a homer to any hitter in the Phils' lineup, including slugger Ryan Howard.
Wainwright called a halt to the inning after one pitch, ball one to Herrera, who had bluffed a bunt. Following his release of the ball, Wainwright had slipped in the dirt as he landed. The grounds crew was summoned by crew chief Bill Welke to add some fresh dirt. And then the Phils got fresh with Wainwright.
Herrera socked a 2-2 changeup and Galvis a 3-1 curve. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were doing little or nothing with lefthander Adam Morgan, who had lost seven straight decisions over 12 games and just had returned from the minors.
Grichuk, who had had at least one hit, all of them extra-base hits, in each of his first six games since returning from Class AAA Memphis _ continued that unusual run in the second inning Friday.
Grichuk laced his 15th homer of the season and third in the last week when he ripped Philadelphia Morgan's first pitch to him into the left-field seats to tie the game at 1-1. Of his eight hits he's had since he rejoined the team, Grichuk has four doubles, three homers and a triple.
