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Red-hot Heyward leads Cardinals to another win over Miami
The Cardinals are starting to get what they were hoping for when they made a big trade to get Jason Heyward from Atlanta last offseason.
After a slow start, the right fielder has suddenly unleashed his impressive power and become one of the league's hottest hitters over the past week. Heyward's third home run in three games sealed a 6-1 win at Miami on Wednesday night.
"Good timing right now and not missing so many pitches in the zone," Heyward told reporter Jim Hayes during the Cardinals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Midwest. "You're not going to be perfect every time. You're not going to have a perfect swing, but (I'm) just trying to give myself a chance more times than not."
It's clear that approach has paid off with a .465 average during a seven-game hit streak, which includes four home runs, two doubles and nine RBIs. When two Cardinals got on base in front of him in the seventh inning, Heyward took advantage of a Mat Latos fastball over the plate to extend the lead from one to four runs.
As some of St. Louis' other hitters have cooled off, Heyward's hot bat has been especially welcome for an offense that doesn't need much most nights to support Major League Baseball's best pitching staff. Thanks to his recent outburst, Heyward is already just two home runs shy of his total of 11 in 2014 and close to being on pace to challenge his career high of 27.
"He's been kind of our catalyst right now driving in runs and being that guy to kind of get going for us," second baseman Kolten Wong told reporters during the postgame show.
3 UP
• Wong gone. Wong broke out of a 2-for-20 skid in dramatic fashion with a go-ahead two-run home run off Latos in the top of the third inning. His ninth homer of the season scored Randal Grichuk and pushed Wong's RBI total to 32, good for third on the team.
"It's just a good approach," manager Mike Matheny told reporters during the postgame show. "We don't want to take away his aggressiveness regardless of where he is in the lineup."
• Not a home-run team? Wong and Heyward added to the Cardinals' convincing case they could be one of the league's better home-run hitting teams -- if they didn't play in Busch Stadium. St. Louis moved into a tie for eighth in MLB with 38 home runs on the road in 38 games. But the Cardinals remain tied for 20th overall in home runs thanks to only 22 in 33 home games.
• Garcia dominant again. Jaime Garcia threw yet another gem to lower his ERA to 1.69. Miami mustered just five hits in seven innings against the lefty, who retired 11 straight batters at one point. As usual, Garcia's strikeout total stayed low with just four, but he made up for it with 14 groundouts compared with just one flyout.
"The goal is always to keep the ball down and keep the ball in the ballpark," Garcia told reporters.
3 DOWN
• Garcia hurt. Another injury scare prevented Garcia from going back out for the eighth, but Matheny said his pitcher should be fine. Garcia led off the Cardinals' half of the eighth with a single to right and came up limping as he scored two batters later on third baseman Matt Carpenter's single to left. It turned out Garcia was just feeling the effects of a hot, humid night in Miami with a cramp near the groin area in his left leg, and he expects to be fine going forward.
"(He) had a cramp and he felt it, apparently, a couple innings before while he was pitching and failed to mention that, but (it) just cramped up on him when he was rounding the bases," Matheny said. "I didn't even get the details."
• Grichuk looking for a hit. Grichuk extended his hitless streak to three games and nine at-bats with an 0-for-2 night in Miami. He did reach base and score in the third, when he drew just his sixth walk of the season.
• Stanton problems. Just like almost every other team in baseball, the Cardinals have struggled to contain the monstrous power of Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton. One night after hitting a baseball 482 feet in the series opener, Stanton hit his league-leading 27th of the season in the second inning, the first off Garcia in 33 innings. He just missed his 28th in the seventh when he smashed a line drive off the top of the right-field wall for a long single.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
