ST. LOUIS -- Whatever concerns folks may have had after Yadier Molina’s slow start at the plate appear to have been wildly premature. With another three RBIs in Wednesday’s 7-2 victory over the Dodgers, Molina continued an offensive tear that has spanned the team’s first homestand and put the Cardinals on the brink of completing a four-game sweep of a club that had been nearly unstoppable before a visit to Busch Stadium.

Molina has been responsible for thwarting much of that. At the plate, he’s driven in six runs over the last two games while tallying a trio of extra-base hits. Behind it he helped navigate a half-dozen pitchers through a combined shutout on Tuesday before leading starter Jack Flaherty through a dangerous Dodgers order a day later.

With Molina serving as the rudder, Flaherty snapped a string of eight consecutive starts without a victory.

“I don’t even think you can put into words just what [Molina] does,” Flaherty said after his eight-strikeout, no-walk performance. “It’s things that people don’t even hear or see. You try to go in with that confidence, but he just continues to instill it as the game goes on. Whatever he throws down, you just try to trust him. He sees things I don’t see.”

Molina’s eye was critical from the get-go. He and Flaherty were taxed and tested early by Justin Turner, who pieced together a 14-pitch at-bat in the first inning. At one point, Turner fouled off eight pitches in a nine-pitch span.

Molina continued to call for fastballs and sliders. Flaherty executed and eventually induced a groundout, which the defense turned into an inning-ending double play.

“That was a great battle, wasn’t it?” manager Mike Shildt said. “Jack obviously made some really, really, really good pitches.”

And of Molina’s impact?

“Yadi is a maestro,” Shildt added. “He has just an unbelievable feel for the game. He understands the game, sees the game, and he understands how to work with our guys and work against their guys. He’s always thinking, always setting up at-bats.”

Under that direction, Flaherty, who had a pitch count of 43 after only two innings, was still able to complete six innings for the first time this season. And it was Molina who helped stake him to the lead.

After pushing across the Cardinals’ first run with a groundout, Molina chased Dodgers starter Kenta Maeda from the game in the sixth with a two-run blast. It was Molina’s first home run this season and the 147th of his career, moving him past Enos Slaughter for sole possession of 13th place in Cardinals history.

“He was sitting on [the slider] and put a good swing on it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You know, he’s a tough out.”

“It wasn’t a quality first pitch that I gave up,” Maeda added, speaking through a translator. “I guess that kind of just matched up with him.”

After starting the season 2-for-31 with one extra-base hit and a collection of hard-hit outs, Molina has pestered opposing pitchers with much more to show for it over the past week. He’s tallied eight hits in his last 19 at-bats, with half of those hits going for extra bases. He has not struck out during that six-game stretch, either.

Before this week, the 36-year-old Molina had registered back-to-back three-RBI games only twice in his 16-year career.

“He’s definitely locked in on his timing, definitely finding some holes, hitting some balls hard,” Shildt said. “That was another big two-run homer tonight.”