Cardinals Top Cubs 10-4
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Matt Adams homered, Matt Carpenter drove in two runs and Adam Wainwright saved a tired bullpen by lasting seven innings for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 10-4 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
It was hardly a vintage performance by Wainwright (2-1), who helped his own cause with an RBI single. He gave up a homer to Junior Lake on his first pitch and allowed six more hits and three runs after that while striking out eight. The four runs were twice as many as Wainwright yielded in his first two starts.
But the right-hander, who led the majors with 241 2-3 innings pitched last year, was able to give the Cardinals' bullpen some rest. St. Louis relievers Carlos Martinez, Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal all threw more than 20 pitches in Friday night's 11-inning loss.
The win was Wainwright's 101st with the Cardinals, tying Matt Morris, Larry Jackson and Max Lanier for 10th place on the franchise list.
In addition to Carpenter, Daniel Descalso also had two hits with an RBI and two runs scored. Adams hit his first home run, a leadoff shot in the second inning, and Jon Jay drove in two runs with a single.
The Cubs' Nate Schierholtz, who had four hits Friday night, had two doubles and an RBI.
St. Louis did most of its damage off starter Carlos Villanueva (1-3), who allowed nine runs and 10 hits in three innings.
After Adams' homer tied the game at 1, the Cardinals sent eight more batters to the plate in the second. Molina and Allen Craig followed Adams with singles, and they came home on RBI singles by Descalso and Wainwright. Carpenter then drove home Descalso with an infield single to shortstop that made it 4-1.
St. Louis sent 10 more hitters to the plate in the fourth inning and broke it open by scoring five times.
Descalso started the inning with a double and was safe at third on Wainwright's sacrifice, with Wainwright reaching first on the fielder's choice. Carpenter and Kolten Wong followed with RBI singles and Matt Holiday had an RBI groundout. Jay's single off reliever Chris Rusin with two outs made it 9-2.
NOTES: Chicago manager Rick Renteria had a successful replay challenge in the third inning of first base umpire Jerry Layne's call on Jay's grounder to shortstop Starlin Castro. Layne had called Jay safe at first, but after reviewing the play, Jay was ruled out. ... St. Louis SS Jhonny Peralta, who has two hits in his first 32 at-bats for the lowest batting average among all qualifiers (.063), was given the day off. ... Castro, who had two hits, has hit safely in eight of his last nine games. ... Former Cardinal Edwin Jackson (0-0) will take the mound for the Cubs in the series finale Sunday against Michael Wacha (1-0). ... Craig was 1 for 12 on the homestand and hitless in his last eight at-bats before his second-inning single. ... With a victory Sunday, the Cubs can win a series for the first time since taking two of three from the Reds from Sept. 9-11 last season. Chicago has dropped eight straight series since.
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