St. Louis Cardinals: Offense tallies seven runs in win

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Lackey earns another win for St. Louis

Veteran right-hander John Lackey tossed seven innings of three-run ball and the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense erupted for a five-run first inning as the club topped the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, 7-4, on Wednesday afternoon.

St. Louis (35-18) was actually out-hit 14-to-10, but despite Milwaukee scoring runs in four separate innings, the Cardinals’ early burst proved to be too much to handle.

Kolten Wong led off the bottom of the first with a double, his 11th on the season, and Matt Carpenter followed with a single, advancing the Cardinals second baseman to third. Veteran outfielder Matt Holliday, who saw his on-base streak snapped on Tuesday, followed with a walk and Jhonny Peralta then singled to drive in St. Louis’ first run of the game.

Youngster Randal Grichuk then hit a ball hard to third baseman Hector Gomez, who couldn’t handle it, allowing Carpenter to score while keeping the bases loaded. Before the dust settled, St. Louis got three more runs – one coming on an RBI single by Mark Reynolds and the other pair via sacrifice flies from Yadier Molina and Jason Heyward.

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In all, Milwaukee starter Jimmy Nelson was charged with seven runs (six earned) in five innings of work, striking out five and walking two. Lackey, meanwhile, allowed a season-high 10 hits in his seven innings of work, walking just one and striking out five.

A combination of Seth Maness, Mitch Harris and Trevor Rosenthal pitched the final two frames for the Cardinals, allowing an unearned run in the process. For Rosenthal, Wednesday’s win marked his 17th save of the season.

Milwaukee (18-36) did its best to keep things interesting, cutting the Cards’ lead to 5-1 in the third on a Gerardo Parra solo blast, but from there on out, the team never posed a serious threat to the St. Louis lead.

The Cardinals got their final two runs in the bottom of the fourth on a run-scoring single from Carpenter, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI in the win.

Next: Memphis' Cooney tosses shutout in win