St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) – Matt Holliday went 3-for-4 with a two-run home run and three RBI as the St. Louis Cardinals took a 6-4 win over the Oakland Athletics in the opener of a three-game interleague set.
Skip Schumaker went 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored while Brendan Ryan scored twice for the Cardinals, who have won three of their last four.
Chris Carpenter (8-1) was handed the win as he was charged with four runs on 10 hits with a walk and five strikeouts over seven innings.
It was Holliday’s first time facing the Athletics since the team traded him to St. Louis last July.
Conor Jackson drove in a pair of runs while Rajai Davis went 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored for the Athletics, who have dropped six of their last seven.
Vin Mazzaro went five innings in the start and was charged with four runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Brad Ziegler (2-4) got the loss for giving up a pair of runs in 1 1/3 innings of work.
St. Louis jumped on top in the first on Holliday’s two-run homer, but Oakland answered in the second to take the lead.
Mark Ellis singled to leadoff the inning and Cliff Pennington followed with a double. After Mazzaro struck out, Davis stroked a single to score Ellis. Jackson later added a two-run double and Kurt Suzuki singled home Jackson for a 4-2 lead.
The Cardinals tied the game in the fifth. With one out, Ryan walked and Schumaker singled. Back-to-back singles from Holliday and Albert Pujols brought home two runs to make it a 4-4 game.
St. Louis then took the lead back in the seventh. Ryan led off with a double and came home when Schumaker followed with a ground-rule double. After Holliday grounded out and Pujols was intentionally walked, Ryan Ludwick singled home Schumaker for a 6-4 lead.
Carpenter, meanwhile, didn’t let a single batter to second over his final five innings and Kyle McClellan retired the A’s in order in the eighth.
Ryan Franklin then worked a perfect ninth to pick up his 13th save of the season.
St. Louis took two of three from Oakland when the two teams last met from June 15-17, 2007 and have taken six of the seven meetings all-time…The Cardinals are 105-92 in interleague play while Oakland is 132-108…Carpenter is 6-1 in eight starts at home this season. He improved to 2-3 in 10 games against Oakland.