Piscotty's slam helps Cardinals complete sweep
ST. LOUIS -- Memo to St. Louis Cardinals opponents: Don't pitch to Stephen Piscotty with the bases loaded.
The right fielder's two-out grand slam in the bottom of the sixth Sunday led St. Louis to a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a rain-soaked 9-8 win at Busch Stadium.
Piscotty blasted a 3-2 fastball from reliever Blaine Boyer 425 feet into the third deck in left field -- his second slam of the season -- to give the Cardinals an 8-2 lead. This year, Piscotty is 5-for-9 with 13 RBIs with the sacks filled, and is 8-for-15 in his career with 18 RBIs.
In improving to 43-38, the Cardinals notched their first home sweep of the year and upped their record against Milwaukee (35-46) to 7-2, outscoring it 57-24.
Rain delayed the game's start for 80 minutes and halted it for another 55 minutes in the middle of the Brewers' two-run rally in the seventh. By the time the game ended, perhaps 2,000 fans were left from the announced crowd of 41,148.
The remaining patrons saw Milwaukee nearly pull it out with four runs in the ninth, thanks to a bases-loaded walk to Aaron Hill, Kirk Nieuwenhuis' two-run double and an infield out by Hernan Perez.
But new closer Seung Hwan Oh stranded the potential tying and go-ahead runs by fanning pinch-hitter Martin Maldonado to pick up his second save.
Michael Wacha (5-7) won his third straight decision, going five innings and allowing two runs off nine hits and a walk while fanning six. Chase Anderson (4-9) absorbed the loss, giving up four hits and three runs over 4 1/3 innings with five walks and two strikeouts.
Aledmys Diaz gave St. Louis the early lead by rifling a 424-foot homer into the last row of the lower bowl in left field in the first, his 11th homer of the year.
Milwaukee grabbed a short-lived 2-1 lead in the fourth when Ramon Flores grounded a two-run double down the right-field line, but the Cardinals equalized in their half of the inning on Matt Carpenter's two-out RBI single.
St. Louis snapped the tie in the fifth. Brandon Moss lined an RBI double down the right-field line and moved to third on the throw home, then scored when Jhonny Peralta lofted a sacrifice fly to center.
The Brewers closed within 8-4 in the seventh on an RBI single by Jonathan Lucroy and an infield out by Nieuwenhuis. Greg Garcia's two-out run-scoring single in the Cardinals' half of the seventh wrapped up their scoring.
NOTES: St. Louis signed 13 international free agents Saturday, the headliners being 16-year OF Victory Garcia of Venezuela and 18-year old Cuban P Johan Oviedo. The 6-foot-6, 220-pound Oviedo is seen as a potential front-line starting pitcher. ... Milwaukee SS Jonathan Villar has reached base safely in 67 of 77 games, which ranks seventh in the National League by percentage (87 percent). ... Despite being just four games over .500 entering Sunday's game, the Cardinals rank third in the league in run differential at plus-81.