Wong’s hard work pays off with big game vs. Crew

MILWAUKEE — For the last several weeks, Kolten Wong measured success mostly in secret. What he’s done, few have seen. Few, that is, besides assistant hitting coach Derrick May, who has missed meals to instead satisfy Wong’s appetite for more work.

Wong has found solace in the batting cage, replacing competition with simulation to stay in tune with his swing. When he was let out of that setting on Monday and treated to his first start in 10 days, Wong responded by putting his fingerprints all over the Cardinals’ 6-5 win in Milwaukee.

“What you guys saw tonight was me not trying to do too much and playing my game and allowing everything to just kind of do as it may,” Wong said. “There was no expectation. There was no pressure because I really haven’t played in [a while]. I went out there, told myself I wanted to have fun today and whatever happens, happens.”

Wong, who had three at-bats on the last homestand and six starts all month, drove home the team’s first run with a sacrifice fly and padded the lead with a homer, his third this season. The Cards couldn’t capitalize on his eighth-inning single and subsequent stolen base, but the sequence was a reminder of the potential that …

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