Rookie Stephen Piscotty tripled and scored the go-ahead run on Mark Reynolds' groundout http://www.authenticflyersshop.com/authentic-93-jakub-voracek-jersey.html in the eighth inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 on Monday night.He was pleased with how he handled his first major league start at Busch Stadium.
The 24-year-old Piscotty, called up from Triple-A Memphis before the game, will bat ninth and play left field.
''I've really tried to push it out of my mind as best I can,'' Piscotty said, ''but now it's finally here, so I'm excited and ready for it.''
Piscotty reached base three times, drove in a run and played mistake-free at first base. He did plenty right, though it wasn't enough as St. Louis fell short against the Atlanta Braves 3-2 on Sunday.
The run came a little too late for Michael Wacha, who allowed Michal Neuvirth Limited Jersey one run in seven innings with six strikeouts but missed a chance to become the majors' first 15-game winner. The right-hander faced the Giants for the first time since allowing an NL championship series-ending homer to Travis Ishikawa last fall in his first appearance of the postseason.
Yadier Molina hit his third homer off Chris Heston leading off the fourth for St. Louis. The Giants tied it on Brandon Crawford's two-out RBI triple in the sixth.
The Cardinals have won nine of 12, ended the Giants' four-game winning streak, and lead Pittsburgh by six games in the NL Central. They're tops in the majors in overall record (76-42) and home record (45-18).
Kevin Siegrist (4-0) worked a perfect eighth against the top of the Giants order and Trevor Rosenthal earned his 37th save in 39 chances when pinch-hitter Buster Posey flied out to the wall in center.
Piscotty tripled off Hunter Strickland (2-2) with one out in the eighth and Brandon Moss was intentionally walked. On the deciding play, Crawford fielded Reynolds' grounder and ran to second for a forceout and then spun and threw wide to first, missing a chance at a double play.
Piscotty had been set to make his first start at home on Thursday but was a late scratch because of a stiff neck he said he suffered while sleeping.
Piscotty also kept the Braves from scoring Tony Allen Kids Jersey in the eighth when he made a stretch at first on a throw from Matt Carpenter with two out and a runner on third.
''There's a lot of stuff to work on is but I feel comfortable and today was a good first step,'' Piscotty said. ''It was good to get the experience and I'm pretty happy about how it went.''
Piscotty was 2 for 8 with a double in two starts, the first appearances of his career since his contract was purchased from Triple-A Memphis.
The right-handed hitter was batting .272 with 11 home runs and 41 RBIs in his 87 games at Memphis. He has raised his season average from .243 since June 1 by batting .308 (44 for 143) over the past six weeks.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound graduate of Stanford was chosen for the Pacific Coast League All-Star team in 2014. Piscotty credits his recent hitting improvement to swing changes he made last winter while working with coaches at Stanford as he completed his degree in atmosphere and energy engineering.
''From the numbers perspective, there's been some noticeably good changes,'' Piscotty said. ''In spring training it was a little rocky for me, and even the first month in Triple-A was pretty rocky.
''But I really felt that I had some potential that was untapped http://www.authenticcanadiensstore.com/authentic-76-pk-subban-jersey.html and really wanted to kind of see if it was there,'' he added. ''It was a big risk, no doubt about it, but I'm very pleased that I took the risk.''
The Cardinals optioned outfielder Tommy Pham to Memphis on Sunday to make room for Piscotty on the 40-man major-league roster.