Alec Burleson homered to end a scoreless tie in the seventh inning, right-hander Miles Mikolas outlasted Logan Webb in a battle of zeroes, and the St. Louis Cardinals avoided a four-game sweep at the hands of the host San Francisco Giants with a 6-0 victory in the series finale Thursday afternoon.
Paul DeJong also homered for the Cardinals, who scored two in the seventh, three in the eighth and one in the ninth to win a series finale for the fifth consecutive time.
Seeking his first win of the season after having been the Opening Day starter, Mikolas (1-1) dueled Webb (1-5), the Giants ace, through six scoreless innings. The Cardinals had three hits to that point, the Giants four.
But after Webb got Nolan Arenado to ground out to open the seventh, Burleson bombed his third homer of the season to right field, igniting a Cardinals flurry.
Tommy Edman made it 2-0 — and ended Webb’s day — with an RBI infield single later in the inning.
The Cardinals created some breathing room in the eighth inning when Nolan Gorman singled, Dylan Carlson doubled for one run and DeJong homered for two more to go up 5-0.
DeJong’s homer was his second of the season.
Edman doubled and eventually came home on Paul Goldschmidt’s infield out in the ninth, completing the scoring.
Webb, another Opening Day starter who has found wins hard to come by, took the loss, charged with two runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
Mikolas was pulled one out into the seventh, having thrown 95 pitches. He gave up four hits and two walks, striking out six.
Genesis Cabrera and Drew VerHagen wrapped up the Cardinals’ third shutout of the season, this one snapping a three-game losing streak.
DeJong scored twice and joined Edman and Lars Nootbaar with two hits apiece for the Cardinals, who out-hit the Giants 12-6.
Mike Yastrzemski and LaMonte Wade Jr. each doubled for the Giants, who took a season-best five-game winning streak into their homestand finale.
San Francisco’s best chance to score came in the fifth, when David Villar and Brandon Crawford singled, and Wade walked to load the bases with one out. But Thairo Estrada grounded into a fielder’s choice at the plate and Mikolas retired Joc Pederson on a liner to right field to keep the game scoreless.
–Field Level Media
