Lance Lynn logged six shutout innings, Matt Holliday launched a three-run home run in the eighth and the Cardinals came away with an 8-3 victory over the Indians on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game Interleague series at Progressive Field.
Against right-hander Lynn, the Indians went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position with six strikeouts. Lynn (2-3) struck out nine total, walked four and allowed four hits.
“When you start walking people, that’s the big issue,” Lynn said. “The singles, they’ll happen. I was able to get through them and make the pitches, but you’d like them to be a little bit easier.”
The Indians rallied in the seventh after Lynn’s departure, striking for three runs against the Cardinals’ bullpen. Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley each came through with an RBI double, and Ryan Raburn followed with a pinch-hit, run-scoring double, cutting St. Louis’ lead to 4-3, before the Cardinals blew things open with a four-run eighth.
St. Louis scored four runs against Indians starter Carlos Carrasco (4-3), who bowed out after scattering 10 hits with seven strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Mark Reynolds, who suited up for the Tribe in 2013, contributed a two-run single in the second, Holliday added an RBI single in the fifth and Jhonny Peralta chipped in a run-scoring double in the seventh.
“I think [Carrasco] pitched better than the line showed,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Reynolds went down and got a ball that probably all he could do with [it] was what he did — punch it into right. I think they only hit two balls [hard]. Peralta hit a ball to right, fairly deep, but there were only a couple of balls that really were driven.”
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