Torres' First Grand Slam Lifts Giants Over Cardinals
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Madison Bumgarner won his second straight after losing his first six decisions and Andres Torres gave the National League's worst offense a big boost with his first career grand slam in the San Francisco Giants' 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday.
Kyle McClellan (6-2) was knocked out after four innings in the worst outing of his first season in the Cardinals' rotation, missing a chance to tie for the major league victory lead. Albert Pujols hit his ninth homer and Allen Craig doubled twice with an RBI.
Cody Ross also homered for the Giants, who are last in the National League in runs even after this outburst and had been shut out twice the previous four games. Bumgarner, 4 for 19 at the plate, doubled and scored on Miguel Tejada's hit in the third, then walked on a full count ahead of Torres' second homer of the season in a five-run fourth.
Bumgarner (2-6) scattered six hits in seven innings and struggled only in the third when he gave up three straight hits and both runs. It's his seventh straight outing of six or more innings with three or fewer runs allowed, with a 2.12 ERA during that stretch.
Torres, the Giants' leadoff man, doubled his season RBI total when he drove an 0-1 pitch over the right field wall in the fourth and also doubled. San Francisco won easily despite going 1 for 18 after the grand slam and leaving the bases loaded in the fifth after three straight walks from Miguel Batista.
Matt Holliday singled in four trips after missing six starts with a quadriceps injury and is hitting .344, tied for the National League lead with teammate Lance Berkman, who was 0 for 4.
The Cardinals dropped to 9-2 in starts by McClellan, who has yielded a team-high nine homers. McClellan was behind in the count to eight of the first 10 hitters and both of his walks came in the Giants' five-run fourth that made it 7-2.
Aaron Rowand bruised his right hip when he was struck by the ball diving into second base on a pickoff attempt in the fifth and was taken out in the bottom of the inning.
Pujols hit his 99th career homer at 6-year-old Busch Stadium off Ramon Ramirez in the eighth and had an RBI single in the third for his second multi-RBI game in the last four. Only seven players have 100 or more homers in their current stadium.
Notes: Ross' homer ended an 0-for-14 slump. ... Attendance of 40,849 was the Cardinals' second shutout of the season. ... Ryan Theriot doubled in the third and has a 13-game hitting streak, tied for the longest active streak in the NL with the Giants' Buster Posey, out for the season with a broken ankle. ... McClellan allowed nine homers in 75 1-3 innings as a setup man last year, and has allowed nine in 67 2-3 innings this year.
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