Goldschmidt hits walk-off grand slam in 10th inning to lift Cardinals over Blue Jays

Paul Goldschmidt hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning Monday night, lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

"I was just trying to make sure I could put something in play," Goldschmidt said. "I was able to get enough of it to get it out of there."

St. Louis native David Phelps (0-1) began the 10th and a wild pitch sent pinch-runner Lars Nootbaar — who was on second as the automatic runner — to third. After striking out two, Phelps walked Tommy Edman. Ryan Borucki, the sixth Toronto pitcher, came in and walked pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa.

Goldschmidt, who sat out Sunday, struck out three times and hit into a double play in his previous four at-bats.

"You don't have any other choice," Goldschmidt said. "I had five outs in four at-bats. That's not what you want to do. I was preparing for the at-bat. It was pretty cool."

Indeed.

Goldschmidt sent a 1-2 pitch over the left field fence for his seventh homer. It was his seventh career grand slam, his seventh career winning homer and his seventh extra-inning home run. It extended his hitting streak to 15 games.

"To start the game the way he did and then to stay locked in enough to take that at-bat and win that game is impressive," St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. "What's cool about today is he strikes out several times and he's still in the dugout upbeat, smiling and having fun. That's a player that's confident in what he's able to do. That was fun to watch today."

Not so much, though, for Toronto.

It was the first walk-off grand slam in St. Louis since April 27, 2017, when Matt Carpenter hit one against Toronto.

Genesis Cabrera (2-1) was the fifth St. Louis pitcher and pitched the 10th inning to pick up the victory as the Cardinals won their fourth straight overall and improved to 1-1 in extra innings.

George Springer homered for Toronto, which fell to 1-2 in extra-inning games.

Each team scored twice in the seventh to chase the starting pitchers.

Miles Mikolas pitched 6 2/3 innings before giving way to rookie reliever Andrew Pallante, who came in to a bases-loaded situation. Mikolas filled the bases on a single and a walk before hitting a batter. Pallante walked Springer and Santiago Espinal, giving Toronto a 3-1 lead before getting out of the jam.

"We love this sport," Berrios said. "We'll keep grinding. We'll keep pushing. It's tough when we lose, but that's part of the game. We know we can play better out there. We'll keep trying and working as a team."

Adam Cinder relieved and allowed a run-scoring single by Harrison Bader before getting a double play.

The Blues Jays tied it at 1 when Springer led off the sixth with a homer to left.

The Cardinals struck for a run in the second on a one-out run-scoring double by rookie Brendan Donovan. Nolan Arenado led off the inning with a single.