For Cardinals center fielder Colby Rasmus, it was one of those days. One of the good ones.

Rasmus' past two weeks have been feast or famine, all or nothing. He had his five-walk game in Kansas City on May 22. He went four for five with two triples May 27 in Colorado. On Thursday night against the Giants, a 12-7 loss for the Cardinals, he drove in a career-high six runs with a triple and a grand slam.

The other nights haven't gone so well. All around those games, he went four for 39 going back to May 18. Going into the game, he had one hit in his previous 11 at-bats.

"I try to go out every day and put good swings on 'em," Rasmus said. "Some days it finds the barrel, some days it doesn't. This game's crazy like that."

The Cardinals obviously need more games from Rasmus when he's on, especially as they go into a two-week stretch without Matt Holliday. While the Cardinals have been winning, the offense has been lagging. In the past 17 games, they've scored more than five runs just three times.

"He's got the ability to be consistent," manager Tony La Russa said. "He's got a lot of talent. I think the more at-bats he gets, the more consistent he'll be."

"I'm feeling all right," Rasmus said. "I'm just battling. I came into the game feeling all right, I guess. I wouldn't say I felt any different. I'm trying to put some good swings on them and came out with some luck."

On Thursday, he was much of what passed for offense for the Cardinals, driving in six of the team's seven runs. The triple was his third in seven days and sixth of the season, the second-most in the National League. He has more triples this season than he had in his first two seasons combined, and he's the first Cardinal to have six triples this early in the season since Fernando Vina in 2001.

The grand slam in the seventh briefly pushed the Cardinals back into the game, cutting the Giants' lead to 10-7. It was his second career grand slam, and he's the first Cardinal to have six runs batted in in a game since David Freese last April. He got a slider from Giants reliever Guillermo Mota on an 0-2 pitch and put it in the right field stands.

"To me, these are things I've been through before," said Rasmus, who's hitting .279, which is just about what he hit last season. "I go through times when it looks like I'm lost up there, but I'm trying to put good swings on 'em and it isn't happening. Then tonight I run into some pitches and there it is."

"He had some big blows," La Russa said. "That's a lot of runs from one hitter. He was definitely a highlight."

In the field, things didn't go quite as well. Giants pitcher Jonathan Sanchez led off the sixth with a ground-rule double to left center on a ball that both Rasmus and Allen Craig seemed to pull up and watch fall between them and bounce into the Giants bullpen.

"It looked like there was some striding instead of running," La Russa said, though he wanted to see the replay before passing judgment.

Rasmus didn't need to. He said it was his fault.

"At first, I didn't think it would go quite that far," he said. "It was a misread on my part and I kind of gave up on it a little. It didn't go where I thought it was going to. I just missed the play."