Yadi's 2 homers push Cards past Phils

In the lead-up to Saturday’s tilt against the Phillies, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt put some frustrations out into the ether. Responding to no question in particular, he listed several reasons as to why he felt St. Louis’ offense was in a good place despite a lack of success. They weren’t frustrations directed at anyone specifically, but at the luck of baseball.

Sometimes you don’t need luck. Sometimes you just need Yadier Molina.

By the time Shildt returned to the scene of his venting session -- the postgame Zoom room -- his offense responded on the back of Molina, who mashed a pair of home runs as part of a four-homer day for the club, which blew past the Phillies, 9-4, in Kwang Hyun Kim's season debut.

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“I always thought of Yadi like an assassin,” Shildt said. "He's always looking for that opportunity to take you down. He's going to look and look, and he’s going to study and study and study. He's going figure it out, and when the opportunity presents itself, he’s going to get you.”

The ageless Molina was just one cog in the type of response Shildt asked for. Bit by bad luck at the outset of the season, the offense has been able to score in bunches, with three games of at least nine runs following Saturday’s outburst and nine games of five or fewer. Remarkably, the Cards have batted around four times this season.

The necessity has been to find a consistent scoring stroke. That looked like 11 hits and four homers scattered across Saturday.

“Proof is in the process,” Shildt said.

Some worries, truthfully, can be easily abated if Molina continues to mash like he has.

Saturday was the continuation of a remarkable start to Molina’s 18th Major League season. His third and fourth homers of the year were both of the back-to-back variety.

No Cardinals player had been involved in multiple back-to-back home runs in the same game over at least the last 60 years, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Hitting between Nolan Arenado and Paul DeJong allowed Molina to do so, and it allowed him to accomplish a few other feats:

• Only six times in Cardinals history has a player older than Molina (38 years, 278 days) homered twice in one game.

• Ten total bases tied Molina’s career high.

• Molina’s 1.044 OPS and .660 slugging percentage are far and away the highest marks of his career.

Asked postgame what’s allowed him to get off to the offensive start he has, Molina simply flexed into the Zoom camera.

“No, no, no,” Molina chuckled. “I got more confidence. I believe in myself. The offseason was great. I feel really good, feel healthy.”

Health is the big factor. Re-signed to a one-year deal, Molina has stated his desire to keep playing as long as his body lets him. The hitting is one thing, but equally as important is Molina’s ability to guide six very different pitchers through Kim’s abbreviated outing. That aspect of his game has never been in question.

Kim, who made his season debut following a bout with back tightness that began in Spring Training, was limited to 68 pitches, 30 of which came in a slog of a first inning before rebounding for four punchouts on the day.

The plan was always for Kim to throw in the 75-pitch range, Shildt said, which is what made the decision to pinch-hit for the lefty in the top of the fourth inning an easy one, despite the Cardinals’ dearth of deep starts by their starters this season.

Kim even joined in on the offensive outburst, reaching first base on a throwing error in the six-run third inning to allow Dylan Carlson to score. It was just his second MLB at-bat -- after the first came earlier in the frame.

“I didn't actually touch the bag,” Kim laughed through interpreter Craig Choi. “I'm just glad that I was not an out.”

Kim is committed to righting the rotation by getting deep into games like he did time and time again in his remarkable 2020. Only one Cardinal (Jack Flaherty) has completed six innings in a single appearance so far this season.

“There's no question this guy can go deep in games and be super efficient for us,” Shildt said.

Health is the biggest concern for the Cardinals at this juncture of the season -- for Kim, others and lineup cohesion. Saturday afternoon provided a few causes for Shildt’s pregame optimism.