Twins 2 - 3 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Cardinals hold off Twins

Jun 16, 2015 - 10:59 PM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Michael Wacha pitched through one rain delay, but the second one ended his outing in the St. Louis Cardinals' 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.

The tarp first came on the field after Wacha (9-2) allowed a run in the first inning. He settled in after that, but he was forced to exit during the second delay in the seventh and finished with two runs allowed on three hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts.

Matt Carpenter reached base three times for the Cards, and Mark Reynolds' two- run double in the third was the difference as St. Louis won both games in the first leg of a four-game home-and-home series with the Twins.

"There have been a couple fairly well-played games here," said Twins manager Paul Molitor. "St. Louis has a knack for winning those kinds of games, and they've done it twice against us."

Kyle Gibson (4-5), who pitched collegiately at the University of Missouri, allowed three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings. Trevor Plouffe and Kurt Suzuki each hit RBI doubles for the Twins.

Brian Dozier led off the game with a single, and with the rain already falling, Plouffe's double down the left-field line scored Dozier to give the Twins a quick 1-0 lead.

After the delay in the middle of the first, Wacha came out firing. He retired the first 11 he faced until Gibson singled off him with two outs in the fifth. He then struck out three of the next four batters to get into the seventh inning.

Wacha walked Plouffe to start the seventh, and after getting Eduardo Nunez to ground out, rain halted play again. Seth Manness restarted the game this time and promptly allowed the inherited runner to score on Suzuki's double. Suzuki reached third on a wild pitch with one out, but the Twins could not bring him home to tie the game.

While Wacha was cruising, the Cardinals' offense gave him a lead to work with. Yadier Molina led off the second with a double, and he later scored on Randal Grichuk's sacrifice fly

Kolten Wong doubled with one out in the third, and Carpenter followed with a walk before both runners moved into scoring position on Jhonny Peralta's groundout to first. Reynolds then singled into left field to score both runners and give St. Louis its first lead at 3-1.

"It's a huge two-out hit for us in that situation," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "He's got the ability to do that."

With Trevor Rosenthal unavailable due to arm soreness, Kevin Siegrist entered the ninth to try and record the save. After striking out Plouffe to start his inning, Nunez doubled. A two-out walk to Eddie Rosario put the potential go- ahead run on base, but Siegrist got pinch-hitter Eduardo Escobar to fly out to end the game for his third save of the season.

Game Notes

Earlier Tuesday, it was revealed that the Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI because members of the front office allegedly hacked into the Houston Astros' internal databases potentially containing proprietary information. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow previously worked in St. Louis' front office ... St. Louis has won five in a row ... The Cardinals are 38-0 when leading after eight innings while Minnesota is 0-27 when trailing after eight ... These two teams will play two more games in Minnesota starting Wednesday.






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