Molina's double in 10th leads Cards past skidding D-backs

PHOENIX (AP) — Yadier Molina had an RBI double in the 10th inning that led the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 win on Thursday night over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have lost 11 straight games.

The 38-year-old Molina ripped a one-out double down the left field line, just out of the reach of a diving Eduardo Escobar. The hit scored Paul Goldschmidt, who started the inning on second base. Daniel Ponce de Leon pitched a scoreless 10th for his first save of the season.

The Cardinals won despite blowing a 4-0 lead. Carlos Martinez took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and Tyler O'Neill hit a two-run homer in his return from the injured list.

The Diamondbacks clawed their way back with a big seventh. The first six batters reached base — punctuated by Pavin Smith's two-run double — and they cut the deficit to 4-3. Smith came up big again in the eighth, driving a tying double into the left-center gap that scored Ketel Marte.

Martinez was brilliant through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing three straight hits and getting pulled from the game after David Peralta's RBI double. He struck out six and allowed three earned runs.

Génesis Cabrera relieved Martinez but allowed all three batters he faced to reach base, including Smith's two-run double, which cut the Cardinals' lead to 4-3. Ryan Helsley came up big for St. Louis to hold it at 4-3, pumping 99 mph fastballs past Carson Kelly and Andy Young before Josh Rojas hit a harmless groundout to second base.

Smith tied the game in the eighth, which meant Molina's big double in the 10th was needed for the win.

O'Neill crushed a 451-foot homer to center field in his first at-bat since a fracture in his left middle finger kept him out of the lineup for nearly two weeks. The ball bounced off the scoreboard in...

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