Despite ice-cold lineup, Cardinals douse Diamondbacks with other ways to win

“I know people probably hate hearing about silver linings and moral victories or whatever, and I get it,” Gibson said. “It’s 162 games. If we’re worried about one game here or there, even one month, man, it’s worrying about stuff that in the grand scheme of things is so small. Except for (Tuesday) and a couple of instances this year — how many games have we not been in (for) the seventh, eighth, ninth, where we have a chance to win? Once again, is it moral victories? You can look at it how you want. We’ve gotten beat in a couple of innings in big games, myself included.

“But the bullpen has been awesome. Defense has been awesome,” he continued. “And how many hitters in here feel like they’re really rolling? Right now, we’re battling to score runs when we need them, and we’re pushing runs across and getting wins.”

In the seventh inning against Montgomery (1-1), the Cardinals stole a run. Winn reached on an error that will likely be reviewed and considered for a hit. He did not stay at first for long. Marmol said the rookie shortstop was “on green, and he picked the right time.” Winn got an exceptional break off first, and Gorman tagged an elevated pitch to left. Winn never stopped — scoring from first on Gorman’s single.

An inning later, Lars Nootbaar widened the lead with a two-run double.

His was the Cardinals’ second hit of only two with runners in scoring position.

“I think it’s well-documented right now that our team isn’t exactly where we want to be offensively,” Nootbaar said. “When you can manufacture some runs like that, have some good at-bats, competitive at-bats and find some holes. Obviously you want to hit the home run and you want to do all the sexy things. ... We’ve got dogs on the mound. They’re keeping us in every single ballgame. It doesn’t take nine runs to win ballgames here. You score two, you might win 2-1. Proof was today.”

And the result was something scarcer than runs so far.

Almost 13 years after shortstop Rafael Furcal turned the phrase into a rallying cry, another shortstop repeated it. The Cardinals were leaving Wednesday evening for New York and a weekend series in Queens. Winn called the trip, because he could for the first time, a “happy flight.”

“Winning is always good. Winning going on the road is always good. Winning into an off day is even better,” Nootbaar said. “I think the ball is starting to turn a little bit in our direction.”