Cardinals beat Diamondbacks 5-2

[August 16, 2012]  ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Adam Wainwright allowed two runs in six innings and the St. Louis Cardinals got home runs from David Freese and Allen Craig in a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night.

Rafael Furcal's two-run triple in the sixth gave the Cards a three-run lead.

St. Louis homered twice for the second straight game and will go for a sweep of the three-game series behind 12-game winner Kyle Lohse on Thursday night.

The Cardinals are 5-0 against the Diamondbacks this year and have won seven straight dating to last year.

Wainwright (11-10) was 0-3 in April before starting to regain his form. He's 4-0 with a 2.04 ERA in his past five starts.

Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt hit a homer estimated at 456 feet, longest by an opposing player at seven-year-old Busch Stadium, in the fourth.

Goldschmidt's first homer in nine games came on a drive that soared over the visitor's bullpen in left. The distance of the homer is the fourth longest overall at Busch, and is 13 feet shy of Matt Holliday's stadium-record homer off the Cubs' Ryan Dempster on July 20.

Joe Saunders (6-9) allowed five runs in six innings, the first time the lefty gave up more than three runs in 11 road starts. He entered with a 2.49 road ERA, fourth-best in the league.

The Diamondbacks (58-59) have lost eight of 11 and dropped below .500 for the first time since they were 49-50 on July 26.

Freese ended a 0-for-20 slump with his 16th homer after Carlos Beltran doubled with two outs in the fourth to put the Cardinals up 2-1.

Craig hit his 18th to right-center in the fifth and the Cardinals got three straight hits from the bottom of the order capped by Furcal's liner into the right-field corner in the sixth.

Furcal was moved to the bottom of the lineup last week while battling back issues and a slump. He also doubled in the third for his first mulitihit game since July 24.

Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs each worked a scoreless inning. Jason Motte finished for his 27th save in 31 chances.

NOTES: Cardinals C Yadier Molina was out with mid-back tightness and thought prior to the game that he might miss a few games. ... Saunders is 3-8 with a 5.38 ERA in 17 career starts against the NL Central, including 2-3 this year. ... Arizona is 3-44 when scoring three or fewer runs. ... Lohse (12-2, 2.72) has won six straight decisions over nine starts. Trevor Cahill (9-10) seeks his 50th career victory for Arizona. ... Miguel Montero singled his first two trips and is batting .369 (24 for 65) his past 19 games against the Cardinals.

[Associated Press; By R.B. FALLSTROM]

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