Tommy Pham is the spark the Cardinals need down the stretch

Tommy Pham stepped to the plate Tuesday night at Busch Stadium as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning. He was back in his familiar white uniform with the birds on the bat — traded back to the St. Louis Cardinals in a deadline deal that returned him to the team he started his MLB career with in 2014.

It didn't take long for Pham to reintroduce himself to the Cardinal faithful. He smoked a grand slam to right-center field, giving St. Louis an 8-1 lead it would not relinquish against the Texas Rangers. Pham completed a curtain call and the Busch Stadium crowd showered him with cheers.

"Definitely my best moment here," Pham said postgame , via ESPN. "One of the top moments of my career."

His teammates are fired up to have him back in the clubhouse, according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News Democrat.

The grand slam perfectly illustrates the fire and intensity Pham brings to any team he plays on. Since being traded from St. Louis in 2018, Pham has become the definition of a deadline guy, playing for seven teams. Four times he's been traded midseason as teams try to push for the postseason, including last season when he became an integral piece to the Arizona Diamondbacks World Series run.

“We didn’t just get a right-handed bat, we got a guy that lives and dies for winning baseball games,” Marmol told the media Monday , via John Denton of the team's website. “That’s who he is. And him walking through those doors is going to be meaningful.”

That's already proven true. Pham hit his grand slam off left-hander Cody Bradford, which is what the Cardinals brought him in to do. Pham has had success against lefties, hitting .269 with a .926 OPS and seven extra-base hits. St. Louis as a team is hitting just .227 with a .640 OPS against lefties. Pham will be counted on just like he was Tuesday as the Cardinals attempt to snag a playoff spot.

Besides his hitting, Pham provides the intangibles that can light a fire in a club. He is brash, outspoken and a hard worker. He can ruffle feathers, as he did on his way out of St. Louis in 2018, but time and again he's proven to be a needed teammate for a club that wants to win.

For a club like St. Louis that hasn't been past the wild card round of the playoffs since 2019, Pham arrived right on time.