Lance Lynn threw five solid innings to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Lynn (1-1) only had one 1-2-3 inning, but he was regularly able to work out of trouble. He allowed a run on six hits and struck out four, and the Cardinals used a parade of six relievers to finish the final four innings.
“That’s not how we draw it up, to use those guys that much,” said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. “Wins are that valuable.”
Matt Holliday drove in two runs, Yadier Molina had three hits, and Matt Carpenter added two.
Wily Peralta (0-1) allowed all four St. Louis runs on 10 hits and a walk in five innings with one strikeout.
Jonathan Lucroy, Ryan Braun and Jean Segura all tallied two hits for Milwaukee. The Brewers had the tying run reach the plate in the ninth against Trevor Rosenthal, but he induced a flyout from Adam Lind to end the game.
“We had chances,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. “We aren’t stringing together hits.”
St. Louis got Peralta in trouble from the first pitch. After Carpenter singled and Jason Heyward doubled to open the game, Holliday brought home both of them with a single.
The Brewers had a chance to answer a half inning later with runners on the corners and one out, but Lynn struck out Scooter Gennett and Peralta to end the threat.
Milwaukee did cut into its deficit an inning later. With two outs, Aramis Ramirez fought off a fastball and dropped a hit into shallow center field to score Lucroy.
The Cardinals go to Peralta again in the fourth. Like the first inning, the first three batters collected base hits, capped by Molina’s single to score Jhonny Peralta. It looked like Wily Peralta was about to avoid further trouble with two outs, but Carpenter crushed a 1-1 pitch to the wall to score Jon Jay.
Once Wily Peralta departed, Milwaukee’s bullpen shut down the St. Louis lineup. Neal Cotts and Michael Blazek combined to retire nine straight to give the Brewers’ offense a chance to get back in the game.
They nearly did just that in the ninth, but in the process may have lost one of their stars. After Logan Schafer led off with a walk, Carlos Gomez hit a ground ball to shortstop. Jhonny Peralta flipped to Kolten Wong for one out, and after hustling to first base to beat the throw, Gomez left the game with a hamstring injury.
Pitcher Kyle Lohse pinch ran for Gomez and moved up to second on a wild pitch. He scored on Braun’s single, but Braun was stranded as Lind made the last out of the game.
