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ST. LOUIS -- Mike Leake allowed just four hits over seven shutout innings and Jedd Gyorko, Matt Adams and Yadier Molina homered to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 6-2 win Saturday over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Leake won his third consecutive start after beginning the year 0-3. It was his first win at home for the Cardinals after going 0-2 with two no-decisions and a 5.76 ERA in his first four starts at Busch Stadium.
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Leake limited the Diamondbacks to a first-inning bloop single by Paul Goldschmidt, a double by Wellington Castillo, a single by Nick Ahmed in the fifth and a two-out single by Goldschmidt in the sixth. He pitched out of a first-and-third jam in the fifth by getting pitcher Robbie Ray to ground into an inning-ending force out.
The Diamondbacks' only other baserunners came when Leake hit Castillo with a pitch in the second before Chris Owings grounded into a double play and in the seventh, on a two-out fielding error by Adams at first base that allowed Owings to reach.
Arizona's best chance for a run came in the fourth, when Stephen Piscotty tracked down a fly ball by Goldschmidt at the wall in right.
Leake had just three strikeouts but recorded 14 outs on groundballs.
The only Diamondbacks runs came on a two-run homer by Rickie Weeks off Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth inning.
The Cardinals jumped in front in the second inning. Adams reached on a fielding error by third baseman Jake Lamb, playing on the right side of second base in a defensive shift, before Gyorko hit a 1-0 pitch from Ray over the left-field wall for his fifth homer of the season.
That was the only mistake of the game by Ray (2-3).
He only allowed three hits, including a leadoff broken bat single by Matt Carpenter in the first and a single by Grichuk in the third. He walked four and struck out five but left after the fifth having thrown 102 pitches.
Adams increased the lead to 3-0 with his fourth homer of the year with one out in the sixth off reliever Jake Barrett before Molina hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot, in the seventh. That ended a streak of 232 at-bats without a homer for Molina dating back to Aug. 19.
The only player in the NL who had more than Molina's 148 at-bats this season without a homer was San Diego shortstop Alexei Ramirez with 152 at-bats.
A single by Gyorko in the seventh drove in the final St. Louis run, his third RBI of the game.
NOTES: Saturday would have been RHP Rubby De La Rosa's normal day to start for the Diamondbacks, but with two days off this week, the team elected to skip that start to give him extra rest. ... C Wellington Castillo was back in the Arizona lineup after getting Friday night off. ... SS Ruben Tejada's relief appearance for the Cardinals on Friday night marked the first time in team history that a position player allowed two home runs in a relief appearance. It his was first professional appearance as a pitcher. ... The Cardinals' top prospect, RHP Alex Reyes, completed a 50-game suspension for testing positive for marijuana on Saturday and will make his season debut for Triple-A Memphis on Sunday.
