The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Houston Astros 4-2 on Wednesday night on another strong performance from Kyle Lohse. The pitcher threw seven innings to move his season record to an impressive 13-2.
The Cardinals took control of the game in the fifth inning when Jon Jay drove home Rafael Furcal with a single. Jay would later score on a Bud Norris wild pitch to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Yadier Molina would provide an insurance run in the eighth inning by driving home Matt Holliday with a single.
Lohse recovered well after falling behind 2-1 early. Despite giving up just three hits through three innings, two of them were solo home runs to Brett Wallace and Chris Snyder. Lohse, Mitchell Boggs, and Jason Motte combined to not surrender a hit in the final six innings of the game. Motte picked up his 29th save.
Jay and Holliday both led the Cardinals' bats with 2-4 efforts at the plate.
The Cardinals improve to 67-56 and pull within eight games of Cincinnati in the NL Central. Jake Westbrook (12-9, 3.50 ERA) takes the mound for St. Louis on Thursday looking for the series sweep. He faces off against the Astros' Dallas Keuchel (1-5, 4.99 ERA).
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