While the Cardinals played Atlanta, Volunteers clean the August A. Busch statue inside of Busch Stadium in St. Louis on April 10, 2016. The annual cleaning of the Busch statue in Busch Stadium has occured the day before opening day for the St. Louis Cardinals every year since 1991. The late beer baron Busch owned the Cardinals for 42 years. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
Brandon Moss and Matt Carpenter hit three-run homers and St. Louis beat the Braves 12-7 on Sunday to keep Atlanta as the only NL team without a win. The Cardinals scored a combined 31 runs in the three-game sweep.
That hid the slow start again for Adam Wainwright. He allowed five runs in five innings and left the game losing 5-4. The Cardinals knotted the game at 5-5 in the sixth on a Greg Garcia RBI single.
“It’s very frustrating, because my body feels good,” Wainwright said. “My arm feels great, but I’m not getting the ball in the right position. … Fact of the matter is, I’m struggling right now. There’s no other way to put it.
Down 6-5 in the eighth, St. Louis took the lead on RBI hits from rookie Jeremy Hazelbaker and Stephen Piscotty.
Trevor Rosenthal came on in the bottom of the inning with the bases loaded and struck out Jeff Francoeur.
The Cardinals then scored five. Rookie Alemdys Diaz scored two with a double. Matt Carpenter followed with a three-run homer.
What a first week for the rookies. Diaz is hitting .500 with a homer, triple, double and four RBIs. Hazelbaker is hitting .400 with two homers, a double and four RBIs.
