St. Louis Cardinals ready to continue series v. Indians

After a decisive 8-3 win over the Cleveland Indians Tuesday, the St. Louis Cardinals now look to the second game of the series at Progressive Field. The Cardinals found success early and often during the opening game of their interleague match-up against the Indians.

Backed by six innings of shutout ball by starter Lance Lynn, the St. Louis offense did the rest. Tuesday’s game saw the return of third-baseman Matt Carpenter, who had missed the entire weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates due to fatigue.

On his 28th birthday, Lynn saw his record go to 2-3 on the season and on this day, he was up-and-down on the mound, striking out nine but walking four, while throwing 118 pitches.

The right-hander spoke to MLB.com after the game.

“When you start walking people, that’s the big issue,” Lynn said. “The singles, they’ll happen. I was able to get through them and make the pitches, but you’d like them to be a little bit easier.”

Carpenter, who is second in the majors in hitting with runners in scoring position (RISP) to his teammate Matt Holliday (more on him in a minute), did not seem to miss a beat.

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Carpenter went 2-for-5 at the dish with an RBI and two runs scored, helping the Cardinals coast to a victory after the game got rocky in the bottom of the seventh.

In the bottom of the inning, the bullpen, featuring Randy Choate and Matt Belisle, gave up three runs before Kevin Siegrist and Miguel Socolovich eventually settled things down for the Cards.

Following an error by Indians shortstop Jose Ramirez, the St. Louis Cardinals offense went on the attack, and following Matt Carpenter’s key two-out RBI, Matt Holliday’s mammoth, three-run blast put the game away for good.

“I think pitchers particularly, that’s kind of wind out of their sail,” Holliday said. “Any time you can get that as an offense and keep extending the lead, you feel like if you can keep just tacking on here and there, you get a good chance to win.”

Looking ahead to Thursday’s game, John Lackey (2-1, 3.20 ERA) will take the mound for the Cardinals against reigning American League Cy Young winner, Corey Kluber who is 0-5 with a 5.04 ERA.

That is a far cry from Kluber’s brilliant 2014 season that saw him go 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts in 235 2/3 innings. St. Louis will look to continue its winning ways and will hope for Lackey to go deep into the game to help rest up a taxed bullpen.

Currently, Lackey has an eight-start streak dating back to last season of pitching into at least the sixth inning and hopefully that trend continues today.

Next: Lynn leads Cardinals in win over Cleveland