ST. LOUIS _ In Sunday's throwback pitching matchup featuring two former aces, the Cardinals came out on top.
Adam Wainwright outpitched Matt Cain, who the Cardinals roughed up for seven runs en route to a 8-3 win in Sunday's series finale with the San Francisco Giants. Wainwright and Cain have combined for 242 career wins, including Wainwright's win Sunday.
The Cardinals were hot coming out of the gate on Sunday with two painful losses Friday and Saturday looming over them. In the second inning, the Cardinals loaded the bases with nobody out for right fielder Randal Grichuk _ Jhonny Peralta and Tommy Pham both singled, while Aledmys Diaz walked.
Grichuk then lined a Cain fastball into the left field corner, clearing the bases with a three-run double. The runs gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead, and Grichuk came around to score two batters later on Dexter Fowler's sacrifice fly.
Wainwright faltered a bit after being staked to that 4-0 lead. In the top of the third, he allowed a two-out single to second baseman Joe Panik and then an RBI double to third baseman Christian Arroyo, with the Giants cutting the score to 4-1. After that though, Wainwright was on cruise control.
The Cardinals added to their lead in the fifth thanks to a Matt Carpenter two-run home run. It was Carpenter's team-leading ninth home run and 26th and 27th RBIs of the season. Then in the sixth, the Cardinals got another run when Wainwright doubled home Aledmys Diaz after he led off the frame with a double. When Wainwright took the mound in the top of the seventh, the Cardinals were up 7-1.
Wainwright appeared to be tiring in that inning, however. The veteran gave up a leadoff single to catcher Nick Hundley and followed with a walk to right fielder Mac Williamson. After punching out pinch hitter Michael Morse, Wainwright was removed in favor of Brett Cecil, who retired the next two batters in order to end the threat.
Wainwright's final line consisted of 6 1/3 innings with one run on five hits and three walks, while striking out six.
In the eighth, the Giants put together a bit of a small rally against reliever Miguel Socolovich. After Socolovich got the first two batters of the inning on strikeouts, he served up back-to-back home runs off the bats of shortstop Brandon Crawford and left fielder Eduardo Nunez. Socolovich struck out Hundley looking to end the inning, but the Giants had made the score 7-3.
The Cardinals though got a run back in the bottom of the eighth after Diaz and Grichuk hit consecutive doubles, with Grichuk's bouncing over the wall for a ground-rule double to make it 8-3. Stephen Piscotty also had a pinch hit opportunity, and he singled to push Grichuk to third, but center fielder Dexter Fowler grounded into a double play.
In the ninth, reliever Sam Tuivailala pitched a 1-2-3 to help salvage the finale for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals will be off Monday as they travel out west for a road trip beginning Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lance Lynn will face Clayton Kershaw on the mound for a 9:10 p.m. start.
