ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Brandon Beachy gave his mom an early Mother's Day present.
With
both his parents in the stands, the Kokomo, Ind., native pitched six
innings of one-run ball and helped himself with an RBI single as the
Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-2 Saturday night.
Beachy (4-1) allowed only two singles and lowered his ERA to 1.60, fifth best in the NL. He struck out six and walked four.
"It's
always good to pitch well in front of your family and friends," Beachy
said. "Having them here gets you going a little more."
Michael
Bourn went 3 for 6 with two RBIs and two runs scored for Atlanta, and
the homer was his first since Aug. 19, 2011, against Arizona.
"Sometimes you get the ball in the right spot and it goes," Bourn said. "I got that in the right spot."
Dan
Uggla was on base four times with two hits and two walks for the
Braves. He scored twice and drove in a run. Brian McCann also
contributed two hits, two RBIs and a run scored for the Braves, who are
21-9 in their last 30 games.
All that offense made Beachy's job much easier.
"The
way we're hitting the ball, if I can throw some zeroes up there we got a
good chance to be out front and in control," Beachy said.
Rafael Furcal had two hits for the Cardinals, including an RBI single, to extend his hitting streak to 11 games.
Atlanta
did most of its damage against Cardinals starter Adam Wainright (2-4).
Wainright had won all six career starts he'd made against his former
team, but he lasted just 4 1-3 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits,
with five walks and five strikeouts.
"He was around the zone,"
said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "He didn't have feel for it as much
today. It was just one of those days he was trying to fight."
Wainright,
who made 108 pitches overall, threw 30 before recording an out. That
came when he struck out the game's sixth hitter, Chipper Jones, on his
31st pitch.
Prior to getting Jones, Wainright allowed singles to
Bourn and Martin Prado and a walk to Freddie Freeman to load the bases.
Walks to Uggla and McCann forced in runs, but Wainright was able to
escape the inning without any further damage.
After McCann
doubled home a run in the third, Atlanta put Wainright out of his misery
in the fifth. The Braves loaded the bases with no out on singles by
Uggla and McCann and a walk to Jones. Wainright struck out Jason
Heyward, but Tyler Pastornicky and Beachy followed with run-scoring
singles to make it 5-0 and chase the right-hander.
Allen Craig
broke Beachy's shutout with a sacrifice fly in the sixth, but Bourn gave
the Braves their five-run lead back with a leadoff homer off Cards
reliever J.C. Romero in the eighth.
"When they scored and brought
it back down to a four-run lead, we went right back out there and got a
run, which is nice to see," said Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez. "It's
nice to win these first two games of the series and to be in a position
to go out there tomorrow and try to win three in a row."
NOTES:
Cardinals 2B Tyler Greene is in a 0-for-15 tailspin after going hitless
in three at-bats. ... After not winning in St. Louis since Sept. 13,
2009 (seven games), the Braves have won two in a row at Busch Stadium
and look for the sweep behind Tommy Hanson (3-3) Sunday. ... The
Cardinals' Carlos Beltran had his six-game hitting streak snapped.
Beltran was 11 for 26 (.420) with 5 home runs in that stretch. ... Bourn
is 6 for 12 in the series.
