St. Louis third baseman Matt Carpenter homered and catcher Yadier Molina hit a two-run single to cap a three-run seventh inning in the Cardinals’ 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday at Chase Field.
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Left fielder David Peralta had four of Arizona’s 14 hits, driving in a run with a ninth-inning single before right-hander Trevor Rosenthal struck out pinch hitter Yasmany Tomas for his 39th save.
Ray pitched 6.0 innings in his most recent start, surrendering three runs, striking out five and walking two in a 4-1 defeat to the Pirates. However, St. Louis has won 60% (25-17) of its games when taking a late lead. Welington Castillo smoked a solo home run to the opposite field in the second inning, and Aaron Hill hit an RBI double in the sixth to account for the damage.
Lynn induced double-play grounders in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The Diamondbacks are 6-4 in their last 10 games, 30-29 at home, and they are 5.0 games back in the National League West. As a team the Diamondbacks are hitting. They moved above. 500 for the first time since April 22 and closed within five games of the slumping first-place Los Angeles Dodgers with Sunday’s 4-0 win at Cincinnati.
St. Louis is presently in the -120 ballpark at sportsbooks.
St. Louis Cardinals’ Jhonny Peralta, left, flips his bat away as he runs to first base after hit …
Castillo hit his 15th homer for Arizona with one out in the second inning to open the scoring.
“We had our chances”, Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said.
The Diamondbacks (62-62) won their previous four games, and they were attempting to get two games over. Submarining reliever Brad Ziegler has converted on 21 straight save opportunities. Monday’s 5-3 win in the series opener gave the Cardinals a 4-0 mark against the Diamondbacks this season and wins in 10 of the last 11 meetings. Arizona RHP Jhoulys Chacin, who signed as a minor league free agent June 20 after exercising an out clause in his minor league deal with Cleveland, was 5-3 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts at Triple-A Reno.
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Since the mound was lowered in 1969, only three teams have had five pitchers make at least 10 starts with an ERA under 3.00 in the same season: the 1972 Athletics, the 1972 Twins and the 1981 Astros, each of which featured a future Hall of Famer. Wong had one hit in his past 19 at-bats.
