It took a rookie to bring it all together.
Brendan Donovan blasted the Cardinals out of their offensive funk with a grand slam in the seventh inning to send them to a 5-4 victory Thursday against San Diego. Donovan’s first big-league grand slam helped the Cardinals to avoid a series sweep at Petco Park and gave them their first genuine outburst of runs in five days. Lars Nootbaar’s solo homer in the fifth inning ended the Cardinals streak of consecutive innings without an RBI or an earned run at 47.
Donovan’s homer got them the win.
Jack Flaherty bought time for the eventual rally with six steady innings that concluded with the strongest stretch of pitching by the right-hander in at least a year.