It took less than an inning for the Cardinals to run through all the various ways they want to heeded as an offense and reclaim the lead they lost, as sizeable as it ever was.
They needed every morsel of it.
A four-run lead squandered in the top of the fifth inning Saturday was regained in the bottom half as the Cardinals laced singles with doubles, sprinkled in a sacrifice fly, and started with a 430-foot homer for good measure. Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run shot at the opening of the fifth inning reclaimed the lead and gave the Cardinals enough of a cushion to weather late leakage.