Cards hoping Grichuk’s bat coming around

ST. LOUIS — A season that began with Randal Grichuk set as the team’s everyday center fielder has evolved into a series of growing pains through which the 24-year-old is continuing to navigate. He hopes a two-hit performance in Monday’s 10-3 win over the Phillies can help him move beyond the latest.

Manager Mike Matheny, as he did after Grichuk opened the season 1-for-15, sat Grichuk on Monday to give him an opportunity to unplug from his current 0-for-20 skid. The respite was brief, however, as Grichuk came off the bench in the sixth, snapped his hitless streak with a single and then homered an inning later.

“It feels good to go out there and put good wood on the ball,” Grichuk said afterward. “I feel like I have been seeing the ball pretty well, and I just hadn’t been making great contact as of late. That felt good.”

Monday marked the third time in the team’s last five games that Grichuk has been out of the lineup so that he could spend his day working to get right without the pressure to perform on the field.

Grichuk’s offensive troubles in early April could be boiled down to pitch recognition …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com