Wainwright delivers with bat during Cards' rout

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Cardinals 12, Pirates 6

PITTSBURGH -- Adam Wainwright is still in search of his best stuff. His bat made sure his best wasn't necessary.

The St. Louis ace drove in three runs and survived five occasionally bumpy innings to pick up his first victory since mid-July as the Cardinals drummed the staggering Pittsburgh Pirates 12-6 on Monday.

Wainwright hit an RBI double off Chad Kuhl (3-3) in the second inning and added a two-run single in the fourth as the Cardinals held on to the second National League wild card spot by sending the Pirates to their seventh consecutive loss.

"We needed that win," Wainwright said. "We need every win that we can get coming down the stretch. Any part that I can play in that is a treat for me, a privilege."

Wainwright (10-8) allowed 4 runs and struck out 5 as his ERA rose to 4.61 while picking up his first victory since July 16. He hardly needed to be sharp as the Cardinals battered Pittsburgh's beleaguered pitching staff. Jedd Gyorko and Matt Adams homered for St. Louis.

Andrew McCutchen and Adam Frazier hit home runs for the Pirates, who have fallen 4 1/2 games behind St. Louis and dropped below .500 (67-68) for the first time since July 2.

St. Louis pounded out 14 hits -- eight for extra bases -- against five pitchers and wasted little time getting to Kuhl, who has been steady if not spectacular since joining the rotation full-time a month ago.

Wainwright's double to the wall in center field put the Cardinals in front and Stephen Piscotty's two-run double later in the inning gave Wainwright an early cushion, one he flirted with giving away. Pittsburgh touched him for two runs in the bottom of the inning, but Wainwright avoided major damage.

"I hate giving up runs after we score," Wainwright said. "That's driving me crazy. But what we did do well there is we held them to two. We could have let that inning get away from us, and we didn't."

CUBS 7, BREWERS 2 Major league ERA leader Kyle Hendricks (14-7) threw six strong innings and visiting Chicago bat Miwaukee. Pinch hitter Chris Coghlan delivered a go-ahead single in a two-run seventh. He stayed in the game and got a two-run single in a four-run eighth for the NL Central leaders.

METS 5, REDS 0 Bartolo Colon (13-7) pitched six innings of five-hit ball and Matt Reynolds homered as visiting New York won for the sixth time in eight games. Kelly Johnson also went deep in New York's 12th consecutive victory over Cincinnati.

ROCKIES 6, GIANTS 0 Chad Bettis (12-7) threw a two-hitter for his first career complete game, Carlos Gonzalez hit a grand slam and host Colorado beat slumping San Francisco. San Francisco intentionally walked Nolan Arenado to face Gonzalez in the third. Gonzalez lined a fastball from Matt Moore (9-11) over the fence in right-center for his second grand slam of the season.

PHILLIES 6, MARLINS 2 Freddy Galvis hit a two-run home run and visiting Philadelphia snapped a six-game losing streak with a victory over Miami. The Phillies' run total was their highest since Aug. 14.

NATIONALS 6, BRAVES 4 Trea Turner and Chris Heisey each homered during a five-run third inning, Max Scherzer (16-7) pitched seven strong innings for his 16th victory and host Washington beat Atlanta.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ROYALS 11, TWINS 5 Brian Dozier hit three home runs for host Minnesota, but Kansas City used home runs by Kendrys Morales and Eric Hosmer to get the road victory. Jarrod Dyson had three hits and scored three times for Kansas City.

MARINERS 14, RANGERS 6 Robinson Cano homered during a five-run first inning and host Seattle knocked out starter Cole Hamels (14-5) early and pulled away with a six-run sixth inning to beat Texas. Felix Hernandez (10-5) made it through 5 2/3 innings and gave up six runs for Seattle.

ANGELS 10, ATHLETICS 7 Kole Calhoun hit a solo home run in the second inning, Albert Pujols had a two-run double in the fourth and visiting Los Angeles held off Oakland.

YANKEES 5, BLUE JAYS 3 Jacoby Ellsbury overcame a first-inning deficit against R.A. Dickey with a two-run home run on the knuckleballer's third pitch of the game, then added an RBI single to lead host New York over Toronto.

ORIOLES 7, RAYS 3 Ubaldo Jimenez (6-11) threw a two-hitter for his first complete game since 2011, leading visiting Baltimore to a victory over Tampa Bay. Jimenez struck out six and walked one. He retired 25 of 26 -- the lone baserunner coming on a fourth-inning walk -- after giving up Logan Morrison's three-run home run in the first.

TIGERS 5, WHITE SOX 3 (11) Justin Upton hit a three-run home run in the 11th inning to lift visiting Detroit over Chicago for its 11th victory in 14 games. Miguel Cabrera homered twice and had four hits off Chris Sale, and Justin Verlander struck out 11 in seven innings as the Tigers stayed tied with Baltimore for the second American League wild card spot.

INTERLEAGUE

PADRES 2, RED SOX 1 Edwin Jackson (4-5) struck out 11 in seven scoreless innings to outpitch former Padres ace Drew Pomeranz, Adam Rosales hit a two-run home run and host San Diego beat Boston.

Sports on 09/06/2016

Upcoming Events