O'Neill and Goldschmidt homer, Cardinals beat Royals 4-2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tyler O’Neill had a career-high four hits, including a solo home run, and Adam Wainwright threw seven effective innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Friday night.

Paul Goldschmidt also homered to help St. Louis snap a three-game losing streak.

Ryan O’Hearn had a run-scoring triple for the Royals. They were coming off consecutive victories over AL Central-leading Chicago.

O’Neill finished a triple shy of the cycle. He hit his 18th homer of the season leading off the fourth inning.

Wainwright (10-6) allowed two runs on seven hits. He struck out six and walked two. Wainwright improved to 87-45 coming off a Cardinals loss.

Alex Reyes picked up his 25th save in 26 chances. T.J. McFarland threw a scoreless eighth.

Goldschmidt hit his 18th homer of the season off Mike Minor (8-10) in the first inning. Minor gave up four runs on seven hits over five innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

The Royals were without All-Star catcher Salvador Perez, who missed the contest with the flu. Perez, who had played in all 107 games, remained at the team hotel. Manager Mike Matheny said the illness is not COVID-19 related.

Goldschmidt added a run-scoring hit in the fifth to make it 4-0.

Kansas City bunched together four successive hits off Wainwright in the sixth including a run-scoring single by Hunter Dozier that closed the deficit to 4-2.

Paul DeJong broke an 0-for-18 slump with a run-scoring hit in the second.

Kansas City, which had won 10 of its previous 15, fell to 8-4 in interleague games.

STILL ROLLING ALONG

Kansas City INF Whit Merrifield played in his 415th successive game on Friday, which is the longest active streak in the majors. He still needs 2,217 consecutive starts to...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/O-Neill-and-Goldschmidt-homer-Cardinals-beat-16371101.php