Bader's 443-foot slam caps 6-run 10th

DENVER -- All the Cardinals have wanted him to do is be Harrison Bader:

Forget the 59 games missed to a pair of injuries. Ignore some of the offensive shortcomings. Be the spark plug. Settle the outfield. Inject a jolt of energy.

Like, say, hitting a 443-foot grand slam -- the first of your career -- to cap a sixth-run 10th inning in a game in which the Cardinals were one pitch from the brink of defeat but instead earned a 9-3 victory over the Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night.

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“It's actually funny. Right before I came up in that situation, I literally just kind of said to myself, ‘You really have nothing to lose here,’” Bader said. “… I just totally was like, ‘Well, let's just see what happens.’”

It wasn’t just Bader who needed to focus forward on Friday evening, but the Cardinals’ offense in full. Just two runs heading into the ninth inning set the stage for an evening of disappointment, facing the real possibility of four total runs scored across two consecutive losses in hitter-friendly Coors Field.

Then the game fell to José Rondón, and all was forgotten.

Rondón tied the game with an RBI single with two outs on an 0-2 count. In the 10th inning, Yadier Molina delivered a go-ahead RBI single with two outs on an 0-2 count.

Closer Alex Reyes pitched the bottom of the 10th comfortably, after he hit for himself for the first time this season, thanks to Bader’s first hit -- and home run -- since he returned from the injured list.

“Very gritty win. It’s a great word,” said manager Mike Shildt. “Grit’s an amazing attribute in individuals and in teams, and it's something that this organization’s had in the players and in the people that get the blessing to coach and manage it.”

Grit has manifested within Bader, who has struggled through both a forearm injury and rib fracture, and within the offense, which quickly moved past being flummoxed by right-hander Chi Chi González for seven innings on Friday.

“Your rearview mirror is smaller,” Shildt said. “You don't ignore it, you use it appropriately, you look back, you learn from it, you grow from it. But you don't live in it. The front windshield is a lot bigger.”

An earlier offensive outburst surely would have been enough to lift Johan Oviedo to the first win on his ledger, now 15 starts into his young Major League career without one. The 23-year-old, recently graduated from prospect status, threw a quality start -- the fourth in the past seven outings from St. Louis starters -- in his first career game in Denver.

In Cardinals history, only Daniel Ponce de Leon owns a longer stretch of starts to open a career without a victory (19).

But Oviedo will happily let that streak live on if the trade-off is a night that ended in fireworks -- both in the 10th inning and with Coors Field’s Fourth of July weekend postgame celebration.

It ended with Bader, but it also, in part, started with him. On the field after the game, Bader told the Bally Sports Midwest broadcast that he turned to Shildt in the 10th inning and predicted that Molina would come through with the go-ahead hit.

Then Bader provided the final blow. He gave his ball a look, but he knew he didn’t need to. He provided some flair around the bases. He went for a two-handed high-five with Tommy Edman, but in the haze of jubilation, missed and smacked his teammate on the helmet.

He was back -- to being Bader.

“I've missed a lot of baseball, but I do have 80 games left to go out there and just be as positive a spark plug -- whatever you want to say,” Bader said. “I'm just looking forward to just going out there, being myself, picking my guys up, playing as hard as we can for the remainder of the season and seeing how it plays out.”