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 Right-hander Wainwright's three-run triple keyed a five-run sixth
inning and gave St. Louis a 7-3 lead in an 11-4 victory over the
Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. The at-bat was always his,
manager Mike Matheny said.
"He was hitting," Matheny said. "I made up my mind before we even
got to that. He was at 71 pitches right there. I didn't want to take
him out as a pitcher, knowing we had a lot of game left.
"He's a better-than-average hitting pitcher. Don't tell him I said
that."
With one out and the bases loaded after singles by Jeff Gyorko and
Ruben Tejada and a walk by Aledmys Diaz, Wainwright hit a hard
grounder down the third-base line that rolled around in the
left-field corner to drive in three.
Stephen Piscotty drove in Wainwright with a two-out single and Matt
Holliday followed with an RBI double, and the Cardinals broke the
game open in a three-run seventh that featured a two-run single by
Matt Carpenter.
 Wainwright, a .197 career hitter, has 36 extra-base hits and 42 RBIs
in his 11-year career.
"If I was able to push something across positive in some way, it was
going to help us win the game," Wainwright said. "Luckily I was
given a pitch to put a good swing on."
Rookie Diaz had two hits and a homer, Piscotty had four hits and two
RBIs and Carpenter and Holliday had two RBIs apiece to help
Wainwright (1-3) to his first victory since April 19, 2015. He
missed five months with a ruptured right Achilles last season.
Diaz drew an eight-pitch walk off Patrick Corbin (1-3) to load the
bases for Wainwright.
"That at-bat was a key at-bat to that inning," Wainwright said.
"They probably pitch me completely different if he gets out right
there."
Homers by Brandon Drury and Paul Goldschmidt gave Arizona (11-12) a
3-1 lead before Diaz hit his fourth homer of the season in the fifth
inning.
Wainwright gave up seven hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings,
striking out five and walking one.
"My results did not match my stuff tonight," said Wainwright, who
entered with a 7.25 ERA.
"My stuff was dramatically better and different than it has been. It
wasn't even close. That was much more like I'm used to pitching.
When I'm driving the ball down at the knees and sinking it and
curving it and cutting it like I should be, then there are a lot of
outs out there for me this year."
Diaz scored three times and raised his batting average to .475. He
has 65 plate appearances, enough to qualify among the league leaders
for the first time this season.
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Yadier Molina doubled and walked twice, extending his on-base streak
to 16 games and his hitting streak to nine games.
Jean Segura, Jake Lamb and Welington Castillo had two hits for
Arizona (11-12).
Corbin gave up seven runs on seven hits and five walks. He struck
out two.
"I need to make a better pitch to Wainwright and not let him beat us
there," Corbin said. "Just left it a little too middle there and he
was definitely sitting fastball."
Arizona's starting rotation has an 8.01 ERA with one quality start
in 13 home games. The staff ERA is 6.77 this season.
"We're starting to almost expect something bad to happen when we
come in from the bullpen and that can't happen," Arizona manager
Chip Hale said.
"They're better than that. They all have plus stuff and they have to
let it go and have conviction when they throw it. Right now, I'm not
seeing that in their eyes and we're going to have to work on that."
NOTES: St. Louis LF Matt Holliday was back in the lineup Wednesday
after missing Tuesday's game with a right leg cramp. He was removed
in the third inning of Monday's game after getting hurt while
running out a ground ball. ... Arizona RF David Peralta made his
first start in center field this season because CF Chris Owings was
given a day off after making 10 consecutive starts. Peralta played
14 games in center in 2014 and one in 2015. ... St. Louis 3B Matt
Carpenter made his first start of the season at first base. Manager
Mike Matheny said he wanted to get as many right-handed bats in the
lineup against Arizona LHP Patrick Corbin. Carpenter replaced
left-handed-hitting 1B Brandon Moss, and Ruben Tejada started at
third base for the first time this season.
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reserved.]
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