By MATT PIKE
The Arizona Diamondbacks powered their way to victory as LuJames Groover and Ketel Marte hit back-to-back home runs to cap a six-run fourth inning pushing the Diamondbacks to a 9-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI double from Blaze Jordan that scored José Fermín. St. Louis held the 1-0 lead until the six run fourth inning which started with Tommy Troy singling to drive in Corbin Carroll to tie up the game. The Diamondbacks took the lead one at bat later as Ildemaro Vargas hit a two-out, two-run double that scored Nolan Arenado and Troy to take a 3-1 lead.
With the 3-1 lead, and a runner on second base, Groover hit a two-run home run to left field for his first career home run and Marte followed with his 13th home run of the season to give Arizona a 6-1 lead at the end of the top of the fourth inning. In the bottom half of the inning, St. Louis scored one run to cut into the lead, Jordan again driving in a run, this time with a sacrifice fly again bringing home Fermín to make it 6-2 at the end of four frames.
The Diamondbacks added two more runs in the seventh inning with back-to-back doubles from Troy and Lourdes Gurriel Jr, driving in Gabriel Moreno and Troy respectively for an 8-2 lead. Moreno hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to drive in the final Arizona run, scoring Groover, before Fermín hit a solo home run in the ninth and Jordan drove in Lars Nootbaar for his third RBI of the game, after Nootbaar tripled, for the final Cardinals runs.
Matthew Liberatore took the loss, falling to 3-5 on the season, allowing six runs and eight hits with two walks in 5.1 innings while striking out three batters. He's 0-2 with a 10.34 ERA in four June starts. At the plate, Jordan went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI's for his third multi-RBI game in 12 games since making his major league debut on June 12th. Fermín was also 2-for-3 with a home run and three runs scored.
St. Louis and Arizona wrap up their series tomorrow. Michael McGreevy (3-6, 3.35 ERA, 53K's) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Zac Gallen (3-6, 6.10 ERA, 52K's) for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is at 6:45pm, coverage begins at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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