PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Randal Grichuk homered and had three hits, and Kolten Wong and Yadier Molina also went deep as the St. Louis Cardinals set season highs for runs and hits in a 12-4 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.

The Cardinals avoided their second three-game losing streak of the season while breaking out of the offensive funk that followed Tuesday’s news of a federal investigation into whether club officials illegally hacked into the Houston Astros’ player database.

The Cardinals batted .211 with five runs in the first three games after the story broke. If the investigation had any bearing on the lackluster offense, they certainly put it out of their minds against the Phillies.

St. Louis pounded out 16 hits, including six for extra bases. Jhonny Peralta doubled and had three RBI, Mark Reynolds had a two-run double and 10 Cardinals got hits.

Ryan Howard homered for Philadelphia, which snapped a nine-game losing streak on Thursday. The last-place Phillies sank 23 games under .500.

Tyler Lyons (2-0) won his second straight game after going 13 consecutive starts without a win dating back to 2013. He earned a victory Saturday over the Royals and cruised to his latest one behind double-digit run support.

Lyons allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings with five strikeouts and one walk. He also helped himself with the bat, singling twice with an RBI and scoring three runs.

Phillippe Aumont (0-1) struggled in a spot start for injured Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels, allowing six runs and five hits in four innings.

It was the first career start for Aumont, who entered 1-5 with a 6.13 ERA in 45 big league relief appearances. He switched to a starting role this spring in an attempt to improve his command and had some success in the minors, going 3-4 with a 2.35 ERA in 14 outings (10 starts). But against the Cardinals, Aumont walked seven and threw a wild pitch. Forty-eight of his 104 pitches were balls.

Two-run homers by Wong and Molina highlighted a four-run second inning that gave the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Peralta drove in Matt Carpenter and Lyons — both of whom walked — to put St. Louis up by six. And the Cardinals scored five runs on six hits against Justin De Fratus in the fifth.

Aumont and De Fratus combined to throw 162 pitches in six innings, 67 of which were balls.

Howard homered for the second straight game, putting the Phillies on the board with a three-run shot in the fifth. A Missouri native whose favorite team growing up was the Cardinals, Howard homered for the 21st time in 62 career games against St. Louis.

Phillies starters have gone 24 straight games without a victory, dating to May 23. They are 0-15 with a 5.97 ERA during that stretch.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Manager Mike Matheny said there’s no timetable for the return of RHP Lance Lynn (forearm), who has been on the DL since June 8.

Phillies: Hamels indicated he will make his next scheduled start Wednesday against the Yankees. Hamels missed Friday’s turn with a strained right hamstring.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: RHP John Lackey (5-4, 3.59 ERA) looks for his first road win of the season Saturday night in the middle game of the series. Lackey is 0-3 with a 6.49 ERA in 11 starts away from home.

Phillies: RHP Aaron Harang (4-8, 3.24) will try to halt a five-game losing streak. Harang, whose last win came on May 15, has a 6.07 ERA during his skid. He is 7-16 with a 4.39 ERA in 28 starts against St. Louis.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have been struggling to score this month, with Joe Mauer and Kennys Vargas at the top of the slump list.

Well, guess who hit the home runs to tie and win the game in the last two innings?

Vargas hit a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Thursday, lifting the Twins to a 2-1 victory and a two-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s always fun to get out there and jump around,” said Mauer, who went deep in the eighth to answer Jason Heyward’s solo shot for the Cardinals in the seventh.

Arriving at home on the first game-ending hit of his career at any level, Vargas was showered with water and a bucket of bubble gum in celebration. He grounded into two double plays, ruining a bases-loaded rally on one of those with one out in the seventh inning, and he’s only 5 for 27 since being recalled from Triple-A Rochester.

Before the game, Twins manager Paul Molitor pulled Vargas aside by the batting cage and encouraged him to refocus on having fun.

“You hope it takes some of the weight off that he’s been carrying,” Molitor said.

It sailed into the right-field seats on a slow 1-1 curveball from Carlos Villanueva (3-2).

“It’s, for me, something special that I’m going to remember all my life,” Vargas said.

Villanueva said he tried to throw the pitch on the outside of the plate so Vargas would chase it.

“The ball came back over the middle,” Villanueva said.

St. Louis lost for the first time in 35 games this year when leading after seven innings.

“It was just challenge time at that point, and their guy came out on top,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

Minnesota won for the first time in 25 games this season when trailing after seven innings. For Mauer, this was his third home run of the season, all of which have tied the game or given the Twins the lead. The three-time batting champion’s once-sparkling average had fallen to .250 before he took Kevin Siegrist deep.

“I try to make `em count when I do hit `em,” Mauer said.

The six-time All-Star said his swing hasn’t “felt that bad” the last couple of weeks. Hitting one into the left-field seats was one way to beat those shifts.

“Nobody can catch a ball out there,” Mauer said.

Blaine Boyer (2-2) pitched the ninth for the victory, after eight dominant innings by Mike Pelfrey in an old-fashioned duel with Jaime Garcia.

St. Louis still has baseball’s best record by a comfortable margin, but the lineup has slumped lately with only 11 runs in the last five games. The Cardinals were shut out in three of Garcia’s first five starts since returning from surgery last summer to alleviate numbness and tingling in his left arm and hand.

Garcia pitched into the seventh, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out four and lowering his ERA to 1.76. Seth Maness bailed him out in the seventh after a walk and a single to start the inning, getting Vargas to ground weakly to shortstop for the double play.

PELFREY’S REBOUND

Pelfrey bounced back authoritatively from his worst start of the season, when he allowed 11 hits and eight runs over 3 2/3 innings at Texas. He gave up four hits and one walk while striking out three, the home run by Heyward the only blemish.

“For it to be 0-0 before that, it made it a little bit frustrating, but overall I thought it was a lot better,” Pelfrey said.

Pelfrey got Heyward to ground into a double play earlier on the same count and pitch as the home run, matching teammate Kyle Gibson for the major league lead in groundball double plays induced with 16. Pelfrey lowered his ERA to 2.97.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: RHP Lance Lynn (strained forearm) has been playing catch, but Matheny hasn’t reached the point of seeking daily updates, a sign that Lynn still has a ways to go. “He’s just progressing nicely,” Matheny said.

Twins: RHP Ervin Santana, serving an 80-game suspension for a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance, will make three rehabilitation starts for Triple-A Rochester beginning on Saturday. “If all goes well, we’ll have a decision to make,” general manager Terry Ryan said.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: The Cardinals continue their road trip in Philadelphia on Friday, with Tyler Lyons starting opposite Cole Hamels of the Phillies.

Twins: The Twins host the Chicago Cubs on Friday, with Phil Hughes taking the mound against Kyle Hendricks.

— Associated Press —