Grudzielanek hits for cycle

ST. LOUIS – Even after getting a home run, single and double in his first three at-bats, Mark Grudzielanek wasn’t thinking about hitting for the cycle until teammate Albert Pujols began rooting him on.

“He was saying ‘You’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to go for it,’ ” Grudzielanek said after helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 on Wednesday. “I didn’t think the opportunity would come, but it sure did. It’s weird how it happens.”

Grudzielanek became the first Cardinals player to hit for the cycle in nine seasons.

Grudzielanek, batting in the No. 1 spot for the second time this year, hit the second leadoff homer of his career to kick-start a three-run first. He singled and scored in the second, had an RBI double in the fourth and tripled off Jorge de la Rosa in the sixth.

Grudzielanek might have been the least likely Cardinals player to hit for the cycle. He entered the game with just two triples in 1,333 at-bats over the past four seasons.

Grudzielanek, who grounded out in the eighth to wrap up a 4-for-5 day, is the first Cardinals player to hit for the cycle since John Mabry on May 18, 1996, at Colorado. Daryle Ward of the Pirates was the last to do it at Busch Stadium, on May 26, 2004.

The first three hits came off Victor Santos, against whom he’s 10 for 19 for his career.

“I’ve hit him well in the past and was just trying to have the same approach,” Grudzielanek said. “I must have been feeling pretty good at the times I’ve faced him. The next time I see him, he could own me.”