Cardinals hold on for narrow win over Twins

Cardinals down Twins in day game

And the St. Louis Cardinals just keep on winning, no matter what gets in the way.

Buoyed by a strong performance from Michael Wacha and timely hitting once more, the Cardinals squeaked past the Minnesota Twins 3-2 in a rare Tuesday day game at Busch Stadium.

Wacha had a mediocre outing by his high standards, but it was still enough to help the ace pitcher improve to 9-2 overall and lower his ERA to 2.48. Kevin Siegrist picked up his third save and took some of the pressure off Trevor Rosenthal, the National League saves leader.

After Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off an RBI double by Trevor Plouffe, the Cardinals went to work.

In the second inning a Randal Grichuk sacrifice fly scored Yadier Molina with the tying run, and Mark Reynolds had a two-run single in the third inning that sent both Kolten Wong and Matt Carpenter home with the go-ahead runs.

An RBI double by Kurt Suzuki gave Minnesota its second run of the game in the seventh inning, but that was all the damage the Twins could do.

The Cardinals (43-21) were 6 1/2 games in front of the Pittsburgh Pirates, pending the result of Tuesday’s game with the Chicago White Sox.

Up next

Most of the teams this week are doing split interleague series. The first two games of the Twins series were at Busch, but the Cardinals travel to Target Field for the first of two contests in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Carlos Martinez (7-2, 2.93) takes the hill for St. Louis, while the Twins counter with Tommy Milone (2-1, 4.15). This game also marks the home debut of Byron Buxton, one of the highly-touted prospects in the Twins organization and all of Major League Baseball.

Next: Cardinals Rumors: Could St. Louis look to add a starter?