Kolten Wong, Adam Wainwright power St. Louis Cardinals past Red Sox

Kolten Wong and Adam Wainwright powered the St. Louis Cardinals past the Red Sox in a 5-2 win on Thursday night after a rain delay.

Adam Wainwright took to the mound for his 23rd start of the 2014 season. In seven strong innings, he allowed two runs on seven hits to earn his 14th win of the season. It’s the 17th time this season in which Wainwright has had such a start, pitching seven innings while allowing two runs or fewer. Wainwright walked two batters and struck out seven. He now posts a 2.28 ERA on the season.

Kevin Siegrist pitched the eighth inning. He allowed one hit and struck out a batter. Pat Neshek closed out the game in the ninth inning. The All-Star pitched a perfect inning to earn his third save of the year.

Wong, the second baseman, continues to take away time from backup infielders Mark Ellis and Daniel Descalso–which Jenifer Langosch noted on Thursday. The eight off days in a 22-game span are helping with giving the regulars some rest while not having to worry about taking their bat out of the lineup. I’m not going to rant about the Ellis/Descalso production this season but the Cards bench as a whole is hitting .220/.307/288 on the year.

Back to Wong, the Hawaii native had the first multi-home run game of his career. Both home runs were solo shots. He hit his eighth home run on a liner to right field in the fifth inning off of Red Sox starter Brandon Workman. A ninth home run would follow in the seventh inning off of reliever Craig Breslow. Overall, Wong had a 3-for-4 day at the plate with three runs scored.

Jhonny Peralta and Jon Jay had two hits a piece while Matt Carpenter walked twice. It was Peralta’s two-run, two-out double in the first inning that gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. Oscar Taveras‘ first-inning RBI single was the game-winning run. It also continued the rookie’s hitting streak–now at seven games.

The only runs for the Red Sox came in the third inning.

Friday night’s starter Justin Masterson took an early flight to Baltimore rather than fly with the team following the rain delay.