The St. Louis Cardinals didn't score after the fourth inning on Friday night, but in those first four innings they put 11 runs, and that was more than enough to defeat the Kansas City Royals on Friday night. In fact, by the time the top of the second inning commenced, St. Louis had already put up 10 runs, knocking out Royals starter Vin Mazzaro en route to an 11-4 victory.
St. Louis was led by the red hot Carlos Beltran, who picked up two doubles and four RBI in those first two innings. Yadier Molina and Matt Carpenter both also picked up RBI in the first inning, with David Freese and Tyler Greene each picking up two RBI in the second inning with doubles. Skip Schumaker capped off the scoring for St. Louis with a double of his own in the fourth.
St. Louis starter Joe Kelly picked up the first win of his career after holding the Royals to three runs and nine hits over six innings. Relievers Sam Freeman, Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas finished out the game's final three innings, with only the latter giving up a run.
The two teams will battle again on Saturday afternoon starting at 1:10 p.m. CT.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation St. Louis. For more in-depth coverage of this series, visit St. Louis Cardinals blog Viva El Birdos. For more news and notes from around MLB, check out Baseball Nation.