ST. LOUIS _ In a battle of rookie right-handers, Cleveland's Shane Bieber got the better of the Cardinals' Jack Flaherty as the visiting Indians salvaged the finale of a three-game set at Busch Stadium, winning 5-1 before a crowd of 43,598.
The Cardinals who won 4-0 and 11-2 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, will take Thursday off before welcoming the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves for games Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Indians, who came into the interleague series on a seven-game win streak, scored first Wednesday, getting back-to-back solo homers from Edwin Encarnacion and Lonnie Chisenhall to start second inning. Cleveland now has five back-to-back homers this season.
The visitors added to their lead in the third. Francisco Lindor led off with a walk and Michael Brantley followed with a double down the right-field line. After an infield out and an intentional walk to Encarnacion, Chisenhall grounded to Kolten Wong at second. The Cardinals got the force at second but Chisenhall narrowly beat the play at first, allowing Lindor to score and make it 3-0. Jason Kipnis followed with a bloop hit to shallow center, driving in Brantley for a 4-0 lead.
The Cardinals got a run back in the bottom of the third when Matt Carpenter walked with one out, advanced on a groundout and scored on an opposite-field hit to right from Jose Martinez, whose team-leading 51st RBI of the season made it 4-1.
Cleveland, the AL Central leader, picked up another run in the sixth against reliever Austin Gomber. After Kipnis led off with a bloop single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt, Tyler Naquin lined a run-scoring double to the gap in left-center for a 5-1 lead.
The Indians outhit the Redbirds 9-6, getting two-hit, one-RBI games from Kipnis and Naquin to go along with the solo homers from Encarnacion and Chisenhall, who picked up another RBI on a groundout.
In his fourth major-league start, Bieber (3-0) worked six solid innings for the win, scattering six hits while allowing one run. He struck out five, walked one and hit Wong twice.
Jose Martinez had two hits and drove in the Cardinals' run. The home team stranded eight and didn't have hit over the final four innings of the contest.
Flaherty (3-3) lasted just four innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs.
