ST. LOUIS — Willson Contreras hit two three-run homers, Nolan Gorman also homered twice and the St. Louis Cardinals tied a franchise record by going deep seven times to power past the Los Angeles Dodgers 16-8 Thursday night.
“We’ll take it,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. “The guys are feeling pretty good about where they’re at right now. We have a lot of guys playing with confidence. We like it.”
Nolan Arenado added a two-run homer, and Juan Yepez and Paul DeJong each hit solo homer runs for St. Louis.
The Cardinals, who have homered in a season-high seven games in a row, hit seven in a game for the first time since July 12, 1996, against the Chicago Cubs. They also did it May 7, 1940, against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yepez, Gorman and DeJong hit consecutive homers in the sixth inning.
Freddie Freeman hit a grand slam and Max Muncy added a solo homer for the Dodgers. It was the fourth grand slam for Freeman and his 300th career homer. Los Angeles leads the majors this season with five grand slams and rank second with 74 homers.
The teams’ nine combined home runs set a record for Busch Stadium.
St. Louis has won nine of 11 games after a 10-24 start to the season. The Cardinals have hit 27 homers in their past 11 games.
Adam Wainwright (1-0) allowed five runs — two earned — and five hits in 5⅓ innings for the win in his third start this season.
“If we hit seven home runs every time I pitch the rest of the year, we’re going to win a lot of games,” Wainwright quipped. “We took relentless at-bats all day. The Cards are playing good ball. I told you all it was going to happen.”
Dodgers starter Julio Urias (5-4) made his first career start against the Cardinals, and it didn’t go well. He gave up six runs in three innings.
“I hate to discount what they did,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It just seemed like they were just on everything he threw. He didn’t make good pitches.”
The Cardinals batted around with four home runs in a six-run third inning off Urias.
“I know that I missed badly and I paid the price for it,” Urias said. “I’ve got to do a better job of executing pitches.”
Contreras hit a one-out, three-run shot 434 feet to center field.
“Everything starts in the clubhouse,” said Contreras, who was given a curtain call by the fans and said it was his first since 2016. “The positive vibes are all around the clubhouse. Once you see a player having a good at-bat, I think that’s really contagious.”
With two outs, pinch-hitter Yepez, Gorman and DeJong hit back-to-back-to-back homers.
St. Louis added three runs in the fourth off Phil Bickford. Oscar Mercado, who had three hits, scored on a double steal. Arenado hit a two-run homer with two outs to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 9-2. It was Arenado’s sixth home run in his past seven games.
Contreras’ second three-run homer and Gorman’s two-run blast highlighted a seven-run eighth inning.
“We’re all clicking right now,” Gorman said. “We’re showing how deep we are.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.