With Matt Holliday back in the Cardinals’ lineup for the first time in nearly two months, Matt Carpenter supplied two of the team’s season-high four home runs in a 10-2 blowout victory over the Reds on Wednesday night.
St. Louis, which completed a three-game series sweep, reduced its magic number to seven for clinching the National League Central. With the Pirates also victorious on Wednesday, the Cardinals’ division lead remained at four games. The Cards have won eight of their last 10.
“I feel our best baseball is ahead of us,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “I’ve said that all season and still believe it. Just the mix of everything we know we can do, put it together for a long period of time. I think it’s ahead.”
The Cardinals started the scoring with Randal Grichuk’s two-out solo home run in the second inning against Brandon Finnegan. In the three-run bottom of the third, Carpenter hit a two-run homer. Holliday, in the starting lineup for the first time since July 29 after he recovered from a right quad strain, added an RBI double to make it a 4-0 game. Carpenter’s second two-run homer came in the fifth inning and blew the game open.
Badly in need of a strong start to boost his chances to make the postseason rotation, Lance Lynn pitched six scoreless innings, with three hits, no walks and four strikeouts. In his second big league start, Finnegan gave up six earned runs and seven hits over five innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts. The killer was the three home runs allowed.
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