EXTRA BASES





Former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa used to refer to the designated hitter spot as a chance to get one of his regulars “a half day off.” There’s something to that, said Holliday, who spent the whole interleague series at DH. “You’re still mentally into it and you’ve got to stay loose but you’re not locked into every single pitch on defense,” he said. “It is a little bit of a mental break.” … Thanks to the advent of interleague play, the Cardinals have had the most productive DH in the history of the position. In total from their DH, the Cardinals have received a .302 average, a .379 on-base percentage, and a .510 slugging percentage. All of those are the highest for any single team since the DH entered baseball in 1974. … In the second inning Wednesday, the Cardinals received back-to-back sacrifice flies from the No. 9 and No. 1 spot in the order for the first time since May 1982 when pitcher Bruce Sutter and Lonnie Smith did it.