Lynn, Cards edge White Sox
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Lance Lynn threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday and the St. Louis Cardinals held on for a 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox in the second of a three-game interleague series at Busch Stadium.
Lynn (10-2) scattered three hits, struck out a career-high 12 batters and issued only one walk to collect the win, which tied him with the Mets' R.A. Dickey for the major league lead. Jason Motte encountered some trouble in the ninth but recorded his 12th save of the year.
"Every inning I go out I think its zero to zero," said Lynn. "I just want to execute my pitches to the best of my ability and give the guys behind me a chance to win."
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Carlos Beltran provided the only offense of the night with a home run for the defending World Series champs, who had lost three of four coming in.
Jake Peavy (6-2) pitched well in defeat, allowing just a run on four hits and two walks while striking out six. Alejandro De Aza went 2-for-4 for the ChiSox, who have dropped two of their last three games.
"You hate to go out there and be almost good enough and feel good and not get it done," said Peavy. "Losing is losing to me and I don't care how it happens, it never feels good."
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St. Louis plated the only run of the night in the third when Beltran got a fastball from Peavy and blasted it over the wall in right-center with two outs to give the Cardinals the lead.
Rios ripped a ball over the head of St. Louis center fielder Shane Robinson to lead off the fifth and wound up on third base. Lynn came back to strike out A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez before intentionally walking Hudson. He then fanned Peavy to preserve the lead.
Lynn struck out Ramirez to begin the Chicago eighth, but allowed a base hit to Hudson to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in pinch-hitter Adam Dunn.
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Cardinals manager Mike Matheny brought Marc Rzepczynski in from the bullpen to face the second-leading home run hitter in the majors and the move paid off as Rzepczynski got Dunn to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
De Aza began the ninth with a solid base hit and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Gordon Beckham, putting the tying run in scoring position. Dayan Viciedo ripped one up the middle which was stopped by a diving Rafael Furcal at shortstop to keep the run from scoring.
With runners on the corners and one out, Motte got Paul Konerko to roll over into a 5-4-3 double play, ending the game.
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Game Notes
The loss snapped Chicago's eight-game road winning streak, which was the team's longest winning streak away from U.S. Cellular Field since a 12-game streak from June 4-July 3, 2000...Chicago is 10-10 all-time against St. Louis and 3-8 on the road...Lynn became the first Cardinals pitcher since Adam Wainwright in 2010 to reach double digits in wins prior to the All-Star break...The White Sox went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded four.