ST. LOUIS (AP) – Paul Goldschmidt homered, Adam Wainwright pitched seven scoreless innings, and the St. Louis Cardinals held on to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2 on Sunday.
Wainwright (6-7), who was scratched from Friday’s start due to back spasms, relied on a mixture of cutters, change-ups, and curveballs. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out seven as he improved 4-0 in day starts this season.
Arizona trailed 5-0 going to the ninth before Domingo Leyba and Jarrod Dyson had RBI singles against John Brebbia. The Diamondbacks had the bases loaded with two outs, but Carlos Martinez got Eduardo Escobar to hit a fly ball to center for the final out for his fifth save.
Wainwright helped himself out offensively by walking and scoring to start a three-run third inning rally and he also laid down a sacrifice bunt leading to a Matt Carpenter sacrifice as the Cardinals tacked on their fifth run in the fourth.
Goldschmidt’s 416-foot two-run shot into the upper deck in left field gave the Cardinals a 4-0 lead in the third. Yairo Munoz started the rally with a single that drove in Wainwright and advanced to third on Nick Ahmed’s throwing error.
Tyler O’Neill continued his RBI barrage by driving home Goldschmidt with a double that hugged the left field line to make it 1-0 in the first inning, ending Diamondbacks starter Zack Greinke’s 14-inning scoreless streak. O’Neill drove in all four Cardinals run in a 4-2 win on Saturday night.
Greinke (10-4) gave up five runs in six innings. The loss snapped a five-year July winning streak for the Arizona ace, who entered the game 14-0 with a 1.34 ERA in his last 18 starts in the month dating back to July 25, 2014.
