Piscotty continues to produce; Cardinals featured in Sports Illustrated

Rookie Piscotty followed up his first big-league homer Sunday against the Miami Marlins with career triple No. 1 on Monday in St. Louis’ 2-1 triumph.

Piscotty smacked a one-out three-bagger to the right-center gap against Hunter Strickland and came home with what proved to be the winning run on Mark Reynold’s fielder’s choice that was not played with aplomb by San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny is running out of ways to discuss Piscotty, who added another first Tuesday when he stole second in the first inning.

“I’ve probably already talked about it more than I even should,” Matheny said. “You get a kid from Stanford, he’s got a pretty good idea. He understands himself pretty well. He’s a thinker. The translation from great academic student to student of the game doesn’t necessarily always happen, but he’s been able to really make some quick adjustments.

“He’s learning. He’s learning quick. He’s a quick study.”

Piscotty is enjoying his time in the big leagues, and he’s apparently here to stay.

“It feels good to contribute. It’s just so much fun,” Piscotty said.

Cards on SI cover

Heyward is on the cover of the newest Sports Illustrated, which includes a lengthy story on the Cardinals and their wild success this season despite a plethora of injuries.

“What we talked about in the interview is how we keep going when certain things happen,” Matheny said. “We focused on the things we can do, not this, ‘Hey, we’ve got something figured out.’ We don’t need anybody else with any misconception about what we do around here. It’s already out there.

“I don’t think we’re a real popular club, for whatever reason. Some of it is self-induced with the whole, ‘We’ve got the Cardinal Way,’ which was never intended (to be) that way. But it is what it is. We can’t control what any of you write or what’s put out there. We just try to stay the course of doing what we think is right.”

Giant game by Wacha

Michael Wacha on Monday pitched against San Francisco for the first time since the NL Championship Series last season when he allowed a home run to Travis Ishikawa in Game 5 that handed the Giants the pennant.

Wacha toiled seven innings, yielding one run (earned) on six hits, but got no decision. Did the game carry any extra significance after what happened last season at AT&T Park?

“I wouldn’t say just for that particular reason of how the season ended last year,” Wacha said. “Obviously, it was a terrible feeling and I hope nobody has to experience that, but I guess it gave me a little motivation in the offseason to never have that feeling. It’s nothing against the Giants or anything like that, just for myself and hopefully never having that feeling again.”

Wacha said he sensed people made too big a deal out of the game.

“Everyone seems to make it out like I was going out for vengeance or something like, I’m after these guys since they won, but I approached it just like any other game,” he said. “I just tried to attack them early on, throw a lot of strikes and get the ball down in the zone. I got a lot of early outs. I felt good and the defense was playing great behind me.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Piscotty continues to produce; Cardinals featured in Sports Illustrated."