Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals take care of Houston Astros in 9-5 win

Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals wasted no time in defeating the Houston Astros with a 9-5 win at Busch Stadium.
Jul 9, 2013; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) throws to a Houston Astros batter during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Image Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Wainwright was his usual self and pitched 7 innings in the victory. He notched his 12th win of the season in the process. He allowed 5 hits, 1 run, walked 1, and struck out 9 batters. He now has a 2.30 ERA for the season. Last night marked the ninth time that he has allowed one run or less this season.

Kevin Siegrist pitched the 8th inning. The scoreless inning marked a new franchise record with 12 consecutive scoreless appearances to begin his career.

Randy Choate started the 9th inning and faced one batter. Choate allowed 1 hit and 1 run.

Michael Blazek had one of the worst outings of his career. He faced 7 batters in 2/3 of an inning. He allowed 2 hits, 3 runs, and 3 walks. With the Cards leading 9-5 at the time, Mike Matheny went to the bullpen once more to bring in Edward Mujica to close out the game.

Mujica pitched to one batter and struck him out for his 24th save of the season.

The Cardinals offense spent no time to figure out Astros pitcher Bud Norris. Norris allowed seven Cardinals runs to score on the night.

In the first inning, Matt Holliday hit a 2-run home run that drove in Matt Carpenter.

David Freese scored in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Carpenter.

In the fourth inning, Carpenter had a 2-run double that scored both Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay. Carpenter would then score on a Carlos Beltran single to right field.

In the 5th inning, Jay singled and drove in catcher Yadier Molina.

In the 6th inning, Craig singled and Carpenter scored once more.

In the 8th inning, Beltran scored on Craig’s single.

This was the 3rd game that Carpenter had 3 hits, 3 runs and 3 RBI. It was also the first time that he did so at home as the two previous times were during a West Coast swing (at San Francisco Giants on April 7, at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on July 3)