St. Louis Cardinals Beat Chicago Cubs 5-1 At Busch Stadium - KTTS

By Don Louzader

CREATED 5:54 PM

What a difference a day makes. The St. Louis Cardinals, who lost their home opener to the Chicago Cubs on Friday, stormed back to even the series Saturday, winning 5-1 in front of a sold out crowd at Busch Stadium.

Former Springfield Cardinal Lance Lynn allowed only one run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings to get the win, improving to 2-0 on the season. Lynn walked two and struck out five. 

With the game scoreless in the bottom of the 4th inning, the Redbirds hit Cubs starter Chris Volstad (0-2) with four runs, and it all started with an error. Shortstop Starlin Castro's throw on a grounder hit by Matt Holliday pulled the first baseman off the bag leading off the inning. After Carlos Beltran flied out, first baseman Matt Carpenter doubled. Catcher Yadier Molina drove in two runs with a base hit, followed by Daniel Descalso's RBI triple and a run scoring hit by Tyler Greene.

The Cubs got their only run in the top of the 6th when Castro's base hit scored David DeJesus, but St. Louis got that run back in the 7th inning on Jon Jay's second home run of the year, a 428 foot blast over the wall in right.

The Cardinals bullpen was terrific as five relievers combined to allow no runs on only two hits. Lefty J.C. Romero came into the game in a key situation in the top of the 6th. With St. Louis leading 4-1 and runners on first and third, Romero got Ian Stewart to strike out looking, then Bryan LaHair struck out swinging.

Mitchell Boggs, Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, and Jason Motte never allowed the Cubs to get back into the contest.

St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny says Lynn made pitches when he had to. "He was very good," Matheny said. "Once again, working the bottom of the zone. He's just got good movement on his fastball. He obviously got some velocity on it as well, and he held that again all the way through. He still looks strong. I got him to a spot where I thought it was best to get him out, but he's going to be one of those guys who's going to be able to run the pitch count up everytime he goes out there I believe." 

Matheny says he was pleased with the performance of his bullpen Saturday, and he praised the work of his two lefthanded relievers, Romero and Rzepczynski. "Big day for both of those guys. J.C. came in and he did exactly what he wanted to do. Zep, same thing, followed it up a couple of innings later. Those are tough situations. Both of them had guys in positions where it could change the course of the game, and I thought they made some very good pitches."
 

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 6-3 on the season. They'll face the Cubs again Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:15. Jake Westbrook (1-0) goes to the mound for St. Louis against the Cubs' Paul Maholm (0-1).

Game Notes: 

St. Louis third baseman and World Series MVP David Freese was scratched from the starting lineup prior to Saturday's game with irritation to a finger on his right hand. He is listed as day to day and likely won't Sunday's game.

The announced attendance of 46,792 for Saturday's game ties for the fourth largest regular season attendance in the six year history of Busch Stadium.  A game against Chicago on May 3rd, 2008 also had 46,792 fans on hand.

The first two home games for the Cardinals have featured lengthy rain delays at the start. Friday's opener was delayed for 1:44, while Saturday's game had a delay of 1:59, with the sun shining as the scheduled 12:05 contest got underway at 2:04.

The Cardinals are 5-1 when scoring first this season, and 3-0 when stealing a base.