St. Louis Cardinals Take Lead in NL Central

It’s only nine games into the young season, but the St. Louis Cardinals are in first place in the National League Central.

That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The Cardinals took over the top spot by beating the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1, on Friday at Busch Stadium in the opener of a three-game series.

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The Chicago Cubs couldn’t ride the momentum of Kris Bryant‘s debut and they lost to the San Diego Padres, 5-4, to fall into second place in the NL Central.

Yes, it’s a long season, but repeat after me: The St. Louis Cardinals are in first place in the NL Central. Let’s hope that’s the same status for the next five months and change.

Here are the highlights from a great night at Busch:

*The top of the order continues to be a hot spot for the Cardinals. Matt Carpenter had a pair of hits and scored twice to improve his batting average to .378 overall. Carpenter, who doubled twice, now has six two-baggers on the season.

*Matt Holliday had a hit and drove in a run to improve to .344, while Jhonny Peralta is at .361.

*The highlight of the game came in the seventh inning, when Yadier Molina had a line-drive double to left field and drove in three runs. That broke open a 1-1 deadlock and enabled manager Mike Matheny to lift pitcher Michael Wacha for a pinch-hitter.

*Speaking of Wacha, he turns out to be a big success story this season. Wacha improved to 2-0 with a four-strikeout performance over seven innings.

The teams go at it again Saturday at 2:15 p.m. (Eastern time).