Cardinals overpower Dodgers, 16-8, by blasting record seven home runs

If a Cardinals player wants to predict a home run from a teammate, all he has to do is walk over to the hamburger phone acquired recently, dial that player’s jersey number, and watch. Each player gets one call per game, unless their chosen player reaches base or makes good on the prediction. The burger kept busy Thursday as the Cardinals hit four homers in one inning against the Dodgers, five by the end of the fourth, and Willson Contreras and Nolan Gorman added two more in the eighth inning for a club record seven homers at Busch Stadium III.

The burger, however, was not the only phone getting a workout.

To avoid misplacing a seven-run lead the early homers created, the Cardinals had to call and call again on relievers. Drew VerHagen and Jordan Hicks brought calm to the proceedings before an eighth-inning outburst powered the Cardinals to a 16-8 victory against Los Angeles. The Cardinals took a one-run lead into the bottom of the eighth and then amplified it with Contreras’ and Gorman’s second home runs of the game.

The seven home runs by the Cardinals are the most in a home game since before Stan Musial’s debut. The Cardinals had seven homers at home May 7, 1940, also against the Dodgers.

The nine homers are a record for a game at Busch III.

The Cardinals dialed up home runs from Contreras, Juan Yepez, Gorman, and Paul DeJong in the third inning to take and extend a lead for starter Adam Wainwright. Wainwright got the win after 5 2/3 innings for his 107th at home as a Cardinal. Gorman’s solo homer off Dodgers lefty Julio Urias was the first of his career against a left-hander. Nolan Arenado added a homer in the fourth before it was LA’s turn to chase Wainwright from the game in the sixth and chomp into the Cardinals’ lead with a grand slam.

VerHagen and Hicks held the one-run lead through two scoreless innings.

Then the burger got back to buzzing.

After Contreras’ three-run homer in the seven-run eighth inning, the Cardinals catcher stood on the top step of the dugout, not too far from the burger phone and got the classic Busch Stadium call — a curtain call.

The home run was hit with such authority and majesty that Contreras took a moment to watch it carry over the center field wall.

It also happened to be his homer.

The Cardinals’ once, current, and future catcher continued to be what he was all along — a hitter — and did he enjoy the results. Contreras flipped the game and ignited the third-inning jubilee with his three-run homer to…