Much of the power that the St. Louis Cardinals' bats seemed to lack during the past two games in Baltimore came back in an 8-3 win on Sunday afternoon. The triumph was RHP Lance Lynn's twelfth, and with the Milwaukee Brewers' subsequent setback to the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis advanced a game in the NL Central to find themselves only two games back of Milwaukee.

In the first inning, the Cardinals initiated things in the right direction, loading the bases on three consecutive singles (Matt Carpenter, Kolten Wong, Matt Holliday). Carpenter was scored on Matt Adams' groundout, while a Jhonny Peralta single knocked in Wong.

The Orioles countered during the next frame; they also made an entrance with singles. Nick Markakis led things off with a soft grounder to third base, and Manny Machado's hit advanced the former to second. They both advanced a base on Adam Jones' groundout, which led up to a Nelson Cruz double that scored Machado. Lynn fanned the next two batters to end the inning with the Cardinals' lead intact.

Both sides went one-two-three in the second.

Wong led off the third with a single to center field, and, after the retiring of both Matt Holliday and Matt Adams, stole second on RHP Kevin Gausmann's wild pitch. Jhonny Peralta was walked, and Jon Jay singled to bring home Wong. Oscar Taveras struck out to end the frame.

For the Orioles, it was Markakis' turn again to lead things off, and he came through with another single. Manny Machado was struck out, before Markakis was ultimately advanced to third on a Jones single, and the walking of Cruz. The next two batters were retired, stranding Markakis.

The game fell into a bit of a lull around here; the clubs again traded one-two-three innings, and, despite Matt Adams' single, little was done by the Cardinals in the top of the fifth inning. 

The Orioles, who saw yet another Markakis leadoff single, this one in the bottom of the fifth, cut the Cardinals' lead to 3-2. It came by Machado's single and a wild pitch by Lance Lynn.

Daniel Descalso made his presence felt in another game of this series; he singled in the top of the sixth to bring in Jon Jay from third. Now, the Cardinals had a 4-2 advantage.

The bottom of the sixth saw Randy Choate come in to relieve Lynn. He lasted one batter, giving up an RBI single from Markakis. Kevin Siegrest then came in, and got Machado to pop out, effectively getting out of the inning.

The subseqent frame saw a difficult play at second, where Jonathan Schoop seemingly failed to catch the ball to register the force out. After Jon Jay was, in fact, ruled out, Mike Matheny and the Cardinals challenged the play. It was overturned, and Jay ruled safe, ultimately leading to the tossing of Orioles manager Buck Showalter

Nothing in this frame came to fruition, though, as the next two batters, Taveras and Tony Cruz grounded out.

Pat Neshek pitched a tidy bottom of the seventh for the Cardinals.

T.J. McFarland, who had been pitching since the top of the sixth, was replaced by Andrew Miller for the top of the eighth, a frame that saw a Descalso double, followed by Carpenter's ground-rule double that scored the former.

Neshek again pitched a one-two-three inning, recording strikeouts of Delmon Young and Caleb Joseph.

The Cardinals came into the ninth inning with a 5-3 lead, but there's nothing wrong with a little insurance. That came in the form of Peter Bourjous' three-run homer off of Zach Britton.

Trevor Rosenthal closed out the game with strikeouts of Schoop and Markakis, followed by a Manny Machado fly ball.

Lynn picked up his twelfth win, bringing his record to 12-8. He gave up nine hits, three runs, and struck out six batters. A note of interest would be Pat Neshek's remarkably efficient outing, bringing his ERA to 0.73.

Kevin Gausman (6-4) was tagged with the loss, his fourth on the year.

The Cardinals stranded ten on base, compared to Baltimore's eight. St. Louis did, however, improve on their play with runners in scoring position, going 7-for-16, while the Orioles went 2-for-13.

Up next, the Cardinals take their road trip to Miami, sending Shelby Miller to the mound against the Marlins and Tom Koehler. Baltimore stays at home against the Yankees, who will send Chris Capuano to take on the Orioles' Bud Norris.

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About the author
Harrison Hudson
Huge fan of college football, especially the LSU Tigers and Wofford Terriers, and of St. Louis Cardinals baseball.