Pham, Gyorko homer as Cardinals beat Astros 8-5

Alex Bregman drove in Teoscar Hernandez with a single in the sixth.

The Astros started on the right foot in the second inning as Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve flashed a web gem on a grounder from Stephen Piscotty to turn a double play in the first.

Royals 4, Tigers 1 – At Detroit: Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to give Kansas City a victory over Detroit and complete a three-game sweep.

The Cardinals hitters didn’t let up, however, against the Houston bullpen, as Moss sent a towering shot off Tony Sipp into the upper mezzanine near the right-field foul pole for his 22nd home run of the season.

A Hazelbaker homer in the fourth extended the lead to 4-0, and Fister would not return after that inning. Manager Mike Matheny opted to pull Martinez after just 79 pitches as the Cardinals had a comfortable lead, but he looked capable of lasting into the ninth inning.

The offense put up very little resistance to Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez, who was able to hold them hitless through five innings. “We know we can get it done, and hopefully, we can do that for the rest of the year”.

The win keeps the Cardinals in that second Wild Card spot, one game ahead of the Pirates and two ahead of the Marlins. But just as suddenly he came undone, surrendering a hard-hit double to Randal Grichuk two batters before Pham blasted a two-run homer the opposite way to right field with two outs and two strikes that made it 4-4.After limiting the damage to two runs in the fifth, Keuchel issued a walk to Matt Carpenter and allowed a single to Moss before being lifted for Pat Neshek, who failed to provide relief by surrendering a three-run homer to Gyorko, his 18th of the season.NOTES: The Cardinals placed RHP Seth Maness (right elbow strain) on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to August 14 and recalled RHP Sam Tuivailala from Triple-A Memphis. “I enjoy watching guys improve”. “Some days there’s bad days, some days there’s good days like today I stayed focused and I felt really good. When you see him pitch like that and maintain like that, that’s improvement”. “I feel like it’s just part of the game”. Molina followed with the first of his run-scoring groundouts for a 2-0 Cardinals lead.Keuchel appeared to right his ship, retiring 12 consecutive batters through the first out of the fifth inning. Only hitting.242, but he’s second on the team with 19 home runs and 60 RBI this season.

St. Louis is averaging 7.5 runs per game during this winning streak and began its offensive frenzy Wednesday in the third inning against starter Doug Fister.

Jason Castro had a solo home run for Houston in the sixth. “That was a bunch of homers”.

“It got us right back in the game to answer (them)”, Hinch said of Bregman, who has found momentum after a poor start to his career.

This is Bregman’s 21st home run this season, but he needed 86 plate appearances to get his first in the bigs.

The Cardinals have hit 49 home runs since the All-Star break, which, as of Wednesday afternoon, was tied with Boston for the most in the majors across that span. St. Louis has homered in 26 of 32 games in that stretch.