Cards' Lynn picks up third win of season in dominating fashion

By foxsports
Published

Now that was how the Cardinals wanted to start an 11-game road trip.

Using a strong start from Lance Lynn and a three-run homer from Jon Jay, the Cardinals opened their three-city trip with a 4-0 victory that ended the Brewers' nine-game winning streak. The win marked the first time St. Louis has won three in a row this season.

It was snowing outside Miller Park on Monday, but the Cardinals heated up on the mound and with the bats. With 11 hits, they reached double digits in hits for the third straight game.

3 UP

-- Lance Lynn. Only one Cardinals starter will begin the season 3-0 and yes, it's the big right-hander. He didn't even need seven runs of support like the Cardinals furnished him in his first two starts for this W. Lynn, who allowed two base runners in an inning only once, never let a Brewer reach third and gave up only three hits in a seven-inning, 114-pitch performance. He struck out 11, one off his career best, and walked two.

-- Jhonny Peralta. After totaling two hits in the Cardinals' first 10 games, Peralta has piled up four hits in the two games since he was given Saturday off. It should have been no surprise that Peralta enjoyed success against Matt Garza; he came in 11 for 25 against the Brewers' right-hander. Peralta wasted no time improving that to 12 for 26 when he homered over the center-field fence leading off the second, his first home run off Garza.

-- Tony Cruz. With Yadier Molina given his first game off, the Cardinals' backup catcher did a nice job behind the plate, guiding Lynn through seven innings and reliever Carlos Martinez through two. He also came through with his first two hits of the season. With a walk in his only other plate appearance of the season, Cruz finished the night with a .500 (2 for 4) batting average.

3 DOWN

-- Matt Carpenter's streak of not being ejected. He wasn't the only player who had problems with Bob Davidson's strike zone, but Carpenter was the one who was tossed. After striking out on three called strikes in the fifth -- at least two of which Carpenter appeared to think were out of the zone -- he had a few words for Davidson on the way back to the dugout. Even though his back was turned to Davidson and he appeared relatively calm, Carpenter was kicked out of a game for the first time in his big-league career.

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-- Base running. The Cardinals led off the sixth with a Matt Holliday single and a Matt Adams double, but neither scored because they were thrown out on the bases. Holliday was nabbed at home when he tried to score from first on Adams' hit to the left-field wall. It took flawless execution by the Brewers to get the out but still, third-base coach Jose Oquendo did not need to send Holliday with no outs. Adams was thrown out trying to go from second to third on Allen Craig's grounder to first. Just when it appeared the outs would prevent the Cardinals from scoring in the inning, Jay knocked a three-run homer into the right-field seats.

-- Allen Craig's chances of moving into the cleanup spot anytime soon. With hits in three straight games, Craig slowly seems to be emerging from his early-season funk. His line-drive single off reliever Rob Wooten in the eighth inning might have been his best-struck ball of the season. Still, the way Matt Adams is hitting, Mike Matheny isn't likely to rush to move Craig out of the sixth spot and back to cleanup. Adams, hitting cleanup for the fifth straight game, went 3 for 4 and raised his team-leading batting average to .360.

You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter at @stanmcneal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.