Four! Cards’ homers stun Shark, Giants

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals left Jeff Samardzija stunned on Saturday as they powered their way back from a four-run deficit to steal a series-evening 7-4 victory over the Giants at Busch Stadium.

Samardzija cruised through the first four innings, during which his offense built a lead against Cardinals starter Michael Wacha by tallying a run in four of the five innings Wacha finished. Brandon Moss jolted the Cardinals’ offense with a homer to open the fifth. After a pair of two-out hits, including the Cardinals’ 33rd pinch-hit of the season, Aledmys Diaz blasted a game-tying three-run homer off the left-field foul pole.

Back-to-back homers by Stephen Piscotty and Matt Adams to open the sixth gave the Cardinals their first lead of the night. The four homers came within a nine-batter span against Samardzija, who had allowed five in 76 innings coming into the start. Adams’ homer ended Samardzija’s night.

“We’re down, 4-0, and the other guy is dealing — and he had good, good stuff today — but you just sense if we get a couple guys on base, something good can happen here,” said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “And that’s a good place to have your offense.”

“Those guys score a lot of runs and they have some power,” Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford said of the Cardinals, who lead the National League in scoring and were tied with the Mets for the league lead in homers. “You’re going to have games like that. It did happen pretty fast, though.”

Saturday marked the Cardinals’ fifth four-homer game this season, more than the club had in its past three seasons combined. The Cardinals have now connected for back-to-back blasts on four different occasions.

• Homers becoming part of Cards’ forte

“The old saying ‘Hitting is contagious’ absolutely holds true,” Piscotty said. “Moss got it rolling for us. We needed something to kind of break the rhythm that Samardzija was in.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDDiaz’s dinger: Diaz drew a curtain call after snapping an 0-for-9 skid with his fifth-inning blast. He took Samardzija deep on a 3-0 fastball, which, according to Statcast™, landed 426 feet away and came off the rookie shortstop’s bat at …

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