George Springer hit his seventh career grand slam, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a two-run drive and the Toronto Blue Jays extended their winning streak to seven by beating the short-handed St. Louis Cardinals 10-3 Tuesday night.
Alejandro Kirk added his 12th homer and Matt Chapman had two hits, including the tiebreaking single in a five-run sixth as Toronto improved to 8-1 under manager John Schneider.
Springer had three hits, scored twice, and made a fine catch at the wall in deep right to end the game, leaving the bases loaded.
Dylan Carlson hit a solo home run as St. Louis played the first of two games in Canada without unvaccinated sluggers Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. The two biggest bats in the Cardinals lineup were placed on the restricted list before the game, along with catcher Austin Romine.
Foreign nationals who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 are not allowed to enter Canada, save for limited exceptions that require a 14-day quarantine.
Unvaccinated baseball players are placed on the restricted list, where they are not paid and do not accrue major league service time.
A seven-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove award winner at first base, Goldschmidt leads the Cardinals in batting average (.333), home runs (22), RBIs (74), on-base percentage (.416) and hits (116). He was named NL player of the week Monday after homering in five straight games.
Arenado is a seven-time All-Star and a nine-time Gold Glove winner at third base. The former Colorado star has led the NL in home runs three times.
Veteran slugger Albert Pujols started at first base in place of Goldschmidt, while Brendan Donovan was at third base. The crowd of 39,756 gave Pujols a loud ovation before his first at-bat.
Carlson connected off Jose Berrios in the first, his sixth. Guerrero answered in the bottom half with his 21st home run and Chapman added an RBI single to make it 3-1.
Carlson and Pujols tied it with RBI hits in the third, but Chapman restored the lead with a hit off Jordan Hicks (2-5) in the sixth. Hicks walked the next two batters to load the bases before Junior Fernandez came on and served up Springer's slam, his 18th home run this season.
HIcks and Fernandez combined for eight outs, four walks, and seven earned runs.
Berrios allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings. Tim Mayza (5-0) got one out for the win.
Making his second career interleague start, Cardinals rookie right-hander Andre Pallante allowed three runs and seven hits in four innings.
It will be about a week before St. Louis knows whether LHP Steven Matz will require season-ending surgery, Marmol said. Matz left Saturday's start against Cincinnati in the sixth inning after straining his left knee while trying to field Joey Votto's dribbler up the first-base line.
Adam Wainwright (6-8, 3.40) starts Wednesday against Blue Jays RHP Kevin Gausman (7-7, 3.00). Wainwright's only prior start in Toronto was a 5-0 loss on June 24, 2010.
