St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals

Jhonny Peralta and Mark Ellis each knocked in a pair of runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in the finale of a four-game set.

Carlos Martinez (1-3) picked up the win after giving up three runs on three hits over five innings of work.

Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick (3-7) was charged with the loss, allowing five runs on eight hits over six innings to snap a two-start winning streak.

Cody Asche went 2-for-4 and knocked in all three Philadelphia runs. Ryan Howard also collected a pair of hits and Cesar Hernandez accounted for the Phillies’ only other hit in the setback.

“It’s not easy to come in here and win two games,” said Asche. “I think we played really well the first two days. We could have played better the last two but we’ll take the positives from it and go from there.”

The Phillies jumped all over Martinez in the second with three runs on one swing of the bat.

Howard singled, John Mayberry was hit by a pitch and Domonic Brown walked to load the bases with no outs. Asche stepped in and lofted a double into the left-center gap that cleared the bases and staked the visitors to a 3-0 lead.

St. Louis, however, answered with a four-run fourth. Matt Adams doubled with one out, Allen Craig walked and Yadier Molina singled sharply to right. Jon Jay singled home Adams, and Peralta followed with a single that plated a pair to tie the game.

Ellis then laid down a safety squeeze that scored Jay and gave the Cards a 4-3 advantage.

With runners at the corners and two outs in the sixth, Ellis added an insurance run with an RBI single that allowed Molina to cross home.

“We played well,” said Adams. “Everything clicked this homestand and hopefully we carry the momentum over into the road.”

Philadelphia struggled to muster anything on offense after its third-inning outburst.

Trevor Rosenthal came on to pitch the ninth and allowed a one-out single to Asche, who reached second on defensive indifference with two outs. He was the first Phillies player to reach scoring position since the third inning.

Rosenthal proceeded to get Marlon Byrd to line out to second to end it, picking up his 22nd save of the season.