When the Cardinals lost in crushing fashion on Sunday in San Diego, manager Oliver Marmol joked that he wished his team could play again immediately to rid itself of the frustrated feelings.

The Cardinals didn’t get that wish, and instead clearly enjoyed their day off on Monday after playing 16 games in a 17-day stretch. Then, the Cards wasted no time on Tuesday in putting Sunday’s disappointing loss behind them.

The Cards scored four times in the first inning and standout rookie JJ Wetherholt added his eighth home run of the season in the sixth inning of a 6-4 defeat of the Athletics at West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park.

Jordan Walker, Jose Fermin and Yohel Pozo had RBI hits in the first inning as the Cardinals racked up four hits and sent eight hitters to the plate in the opening frame. Fermin had the biggest hit by drilling a double into the right-center gap to score two runs. Pozo, who hadn’t had a hit since April 14 while playing little of late, got a two-strike changeup that was well off the plate, but he still drove it back through the middle to plate Fermin and complete the four-run first.

“I’ve been siting a lot of days and when I go up there, I’m just trying to compete and just put the ball in play and see what happens,” Pozo told Cardinals.TV. “I come to the ballpark every day like I’m going to play and I prepare myself every day, hitting in the cage and catching bullpens. I’ve continued to work since last year and I’m going to keep doing it.”

Three of the four runs in the first inning came with two outs, pushing the Cardinals’ league-leading total to 81 two-out runs on the season.

“We have to do that, and we’ve talked about it from the beginning – taking tough at bats regardless of what’s going on, whether we’re up or down or where we are in the game,” said Marmol, whose Cardinals had 10 hits from eight different players. “We just want to be relentless with how we approach (at bats) and continue to create opportunities to score.”

The Cardinals lost 3-2 in 10 innings on Sunday in San Diego when usually reliable closer Riley O’Brien allowed a two-strike, two-out tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. The Cards leaned on O’Brien again in Tuesday’s ninth inning and he closed out the game – with an assist from Wetherholt who started a nifty double play – to tie for the MLB lead in saves with 12.

“It was good to get (O’Brien) right back out there after the day off,” Marmol said. “In a meaningful situation there with a two-run lead, he gets a big double play and then closed it out. So, it was a solid day.”

Wetherholt, who has impressed the Cardinals with his plate patience and poise defensively, hit his first home run since April 30 when he drilled a hanging slider over the wall in right field. The Cardinals have play 19 games against teams from the American League, and Wetherholt has hit seven of his eight homers against AL foes.

The early run support and Wetherholt’s late blast made a winner out of Andre Pallante (4-3), who pitched five innings for an eighth straight start. Pallante allowed just four hits and his three runs surrendered came in the second inning.

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