St. Louis Cardinals rally to beat Chicago Cubs 10-9

Mark Reynolds hit a grand slam to help the St. Louis Cardinals pull themselves out of an early hole on the way to a 10-9 win over the Chicago Cubs in the opener of a four-game series Monday night.

Tony Cruz hit a go-ahead two-run double during a four-run seventh inning that completed the comeback. The Cardinals, who have won seven in a row, trailed 5-0 midway through the first but got an immediate boost on Reynolds' blast in the bottom of the inning.

St. Louis starter Carlos Martinez, who entered the game with a 3-0 record and a 1.73 ERA, gave up seven runs, nine hits and four walks in just 3 2/3 frames.

Seth Maness surrendered a solo homer to Addison Russell in the ninth inning but picked up his second save.

Anthony Rizzo also homered and Miguel Montero knocked in three runs for the Cubs, who have lost three in a row.

Chicago starter Travis Wood hit an RBI single before he even took the mound. He was charged with six runs in five-plus innings.

The Cardinals loaded the bases against Pedro Strop (0-2) in the seventh on singles by Matt Holliday and Jhonny Peralta and Reynolds' walk. Zac Rosscup came in for Chicago and got a groundout that scored a run and Kolten Wong followed with an RBI single.

Cruz then delivered his go-ahead two-run double into the left-field corner to make it 10-8.

Matt Belisle issued a pair of two-out walks to the Cubs in the eighth but retired Starlin Castro in a grounder to escape the jam.

Martinez walked the bases loaded in the top of the first inning and the Cubs took advantage, scoring five runs on four consecutive singles. Montero knocked in the first two runs and Castro, Chris Denorfia and Wood added RBI hits.

Reynolds drove a one-out fastball into the Cubs bullpen behind left field for his fourth career grand slam in the bottom of the first.

The Cubs got a run back on Rizzo's blast in the second inning and scored again in the fourth on Montero's double, which finally chased Martinez after seven runs.

Chris Coghlan tripled and scored on an error in the sixth to make it 8-4, but the Cardinals chased Wood and scored twice in the bottom of the inning. The first run came after consecutive singles by Reynolds, Jason Heyward and Wong, knocking out Wood. Peter Bourjos added a sacrifice fly off Jason Motte.

Game Notes

Miguel Socolovich (2-0) pitched the seventh inning to earn the win ... The Cardinals improved to 12-2 at home this season and increased their lead to 5 1/2 games over Chicago for first place in the NL Central.

[SportsNetwork.com]