CINCINNATI -- Tommy Pham is the type of player who is never satisfied. There is always another way to improve, another rung to reach. He's the type of player who lays out to make a diving catch to conclude a nine-run game, which is what he did during Thursday's 13-4 Cardinals win over the Reds.
"That's a great way of defining Tommy," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "He has one gear and it is wide open."
His team one out away from a win long decided, Pham dove to take a hit away from Jose Peraza in the right-center-field gap. Pham's was one of two impressive plays by Cardinals defenders overshadowed a bit on a night that'll be remembered more for what they did at the plate.
Pham had two hits, walked twice and scored two runs as part of the Cardinals' offensive outburst, while Marcell Ozuna added a solo home run. Both flashed the leather, too.
Ozuna went over the wall down the left-field line to bring back a Jesse Winker foul ball in the seventh. Ozuna had to avoid a fan to complete the play Pham described as "very player-ish."
"He went up and got it," Pham said. "That has to be a top No. 1 play, unless there was something I missed."

Pham didn't miss anything in center, where he covered 79 feet in 4.5 seconds to rob Peraza in the ninth. The grab measured as a four-star catch, per Statcast™.
"I didn't even notice the score," Pham said. "I just always want to catch the ball."
"The first thing I said to him when he came off the field was he played the game the right way, he keeps respecting the game," Matheny said. "Don't back off, don't do anything where he's going to hurt himself. But he's playing hard, and that's something everybody out there has a great amount of respect for."
Afterward, Pham was told his catch measured as a four-star catch.
"I gotta make a five-star catch then," he said. "Gotta make a five-star."