Both the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals take two game losing skids into the All-Star Break.
Jeff Samardzija outdueled Jack Flaherty as the Giants edged the Cardinals 1-0 in San Francisco.
Flaherty fired seven frames of two-hit ball, but gave up a solo homer in the seventh and took the tough loss.
Yairo Munoz recorded two of the six hits for the Cardinals, who went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. St. Louis heads into the All-Star break third in the NL Central at 44-and-44.
Jakob Junis gave the Royals a quality start, but the bullpen faltered again in a 5-2 loss to the Nationals in D.C.
Junis permitted two runs over seven innings in a no-decision.
Adalberto Mondesi and Alex Gordon drove in the KC runs in the eighth to tie it, but Jake Dierkam could not keep it at 2-2. Diekman’s record dropped to 0-6 as he allowed three of the five batters he faced to score.
The Royals lost nine of 11 heading into the break 31 games below .500.