(Updated June 4, 2017)
With Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees moving ahead of Lou Gehrig for the career grand slam home run record _ Rodriguez has 25 and Gehrig has 23 _ it prompted us to look at the all-time Cardinals regular-season leaders in that category:
_ Albert Pujols, 12 grand slams with the Cardinals. Pujols hit five of his grand slams in 2009, tying Ernie Banks of the 1955 Cubs for the National League single-season record. He also has hit two grand slams for the Angels, giving him 14 in his career in the major leagues.
_ Stan Musial, 9 grand slams with the Cardinals. Musial hit grand slams over a 19-year period; his first was in 1942 and his last was in 1961.
_ Rogers Hornsby, 7 grand slams with the Cardinals. Hornsby hit more homers (9) against fellow Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes than he did against any other pitcher. Included in that total was a grand slam for the Cardinals against Grimes, pitching for Brooklyn, on July 28, 1925. Boxscore
_ Ken Boyer, 7 grand slams with the Cardinals. Not included in that total is Boyer’s most famous grand slam: a sixth-inning shot off Al Downing of the Yankees in Game 4 of the 1964 World Series, giving St. Louis a 4-3 victory. Boxscore
_ Ted Simmons, 7 grand slams with the Cardinals. On June 11, 1979, at Los Angeles, Simmons wiped out a 3-0 Dodgers lead with a third-inning grand slam off former teammate Jerry Reuss. In the ninth, Simmons launched a two-run shot off former teammate Lerrin LaGrow, snapping a 7-7 tie and giving the Cardinals a 9-7 victory. Boxscore
_ Jim Bottomley, 6 grand slams with the Cardinals. In a game in which he went 6-for-6 with 12 RBI, Bottomley hit a fourth-inning grand slam off Art Decatur of Brooklyn in a 17-3 Cardinals victory at Ebbets Field. Boxscore
_ Bill White, 6 grand slams with the Cardinals. White’s first Cardinals grand slam came against Jack Sanford of the Giants, who traded White to St. Louis, and gave the Cardinals a 4-2 victory on July 5, 1959. Boxscore
_ Ron Northey, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. Two of Northey’s grand slams for St. Louis were as a pinch hitter. In three seasons (1947-49) with St. Louis, Northey hit 35 homers overall.
_ Tim McCarver, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. McCarver’s second big-league homer was an inside-the-park grand slam to the spacious center field at New York’s Polo Grounds. The eighth-inning shot off Larry Bearnarth sparked St. Louis to a 10-4 victory over the Mets on June 9, 1963. Boxscore
_ Keith Hernandez, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. Of his 15 homers for St. Louis in 1977, three were grand slams.
_ Ray Lankford, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. Lankford’s first big-league grand slam, a fifth-inning blast off Jim Bullinger, erased a 2-0 Cubs lead and lifted St. Louis to a 10-3 victory on Sept. 13, 1992. Boxscore
_ Mark McGwire, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. In 1998, the year he hit 70 homers, McGwire opened the season with a grand slam against the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez, helping St. Louis to a 6-0 victory on March 31. Boxscore
_ Fernando Tatis, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. In the highlight of his 11-year big-league career, Tatis slugged two grand slams in the third inning, both against the Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park, in a 12-5 St. Louis victory on April 23, 1999. Boxscore
_ Jim Edmonds, 5 grand slams with the Cardinals. With Arizona leading 3-2 in the fifth, Edmonds ripped a grand slam off Curt Schilling (one of five he yielded in his career) and paced St. Louis to an 8-4 victory on April 17, 2002. Boxscore
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