The Sports Xchange
May 5, 2017
ATLANTA -- Lance Lynn, who missed last season after Tommy John elbow surgery, won his fourth straight start as the St. Louis Cardinals gave the veteran right-hander a lot more offensive support than he needed in a 10-0 rout of the Atlanta Braves.
Aledmys Diaz drove in three runs while going 4-for-4 with a walk, and Tommy Pham, just recalled from Triple-A Memphis, and Matt Carpenter hit two-run homers.
Lynn (4-1) lowered his ERA to 2.04 with six scoreless innings in which he allowed four hits, walked two and struck out six.
He has pitched 25 innings during his four-game winning streak and surrendered just two runs and 16 hits.
The Cardinals (14-14) came in as one of the lowest scoring teams in the National League, but had 16 hits off five Atlanta pitchers, with eight of them going for extra bases.
It was the second straight blowout loss for the Braves (11-16) as they lost to the New York Mets 16-5 on Wednesday.
Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz (0-4) allowed seven runs and nine hits in four innings, with his ERA jumping from 2.45 to 4.55.
The Cardinals scored a run in the first on doubles by Jose Martinez and Jedd Gyorko. The inning ended on a diving catch by left fielder Matt Kemp, but St. Louis erupted for four runs in the third.
Diaz drove in two runs with a double and Pham picked on hanging a 1-1 slider from Foltynewicz and sent a drive out to straightway center field, the ball getting over the glove of a leaping Ender Inciarte.
Carpenter matched Pham with a two-run homer in the fourth, his shot on a 2-2 two-seamer that also went to center and over Inciarte, who made a futile jump. It was Carpenter's fifth homer of the season.
NOTES: RF Stephen Piscotty, who suffered a strained right hamstring Thursday against Milwaukee trying to beat out a grounder, was placed on the 10-day disabled list Friday and OF Tommy Pham recalled from Triple-A Memphis. ... Pham started against the Braves in place of CF Dexter Fowler, who is day-to-day with strained throwing shoulder suffered Thursday driving to make a diving catch. Fowler had an MRI, which found no structural damage in his right shoulder. ... Braves CF Ender Inciarte had three hits for the Braves, including a triple. ... Cardinals 3B Jhonny Peralta (upper-respiratory infection) began a rehab assignment Friday with Class A Advanced Palm Beach. ... RHP Mike Leake (3-1, 1.35 ERA) will start for the Cardinals in the middle game of the weekend series Saturday night against RHP Julio Teheran (2-2, 4.33 ERA). ... Braves manager Brian Snitker has tendonitis in his right Achilles and is wearing a boot on his right foot part time to help healing.