ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt surpassed 1,100 RBIs with a two-run single and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4 on Wednesday night.
Goldschmidt put the Cardinals ahead 5-2 on his two-run hit off Kevin Kelly (4-2) during the fourth. The St. Louis slugger has 1,101 RBIs.
Dakota Hudson (3-0) gave up three runs and seven hits over five innings in his third start and ninth appearance since being called up from Triple-A Memphis last month.
Giovanny Gallegos, the fourth Cardinals reliever, worked a perfect ninth for his ninth save in 14 chances.
St. Louis, which won for the fourth time in 11 games, needs to go 31-17 to finish the season at .500.
Jose Siri homered twice for the AL wild card-leading Rays. They are 6-3 over their last nine games.
Twenty-one of Siri's 23 homers have come in his last 67 games since May 1, which is tied for third most in the AL over the stretch.
Nolan Arenado and Jordan Walker had RBI singles in the third that gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Arenado tied Houston’s Alex Bregman for the most interleague RBIs this season with 32.
Lars Nootbaar made it 6-3 with a seventh-inning leadoff homer. Tampa Bay got the run back in the bottom of the inning on Wander Franco's home run.
The Rays took a 2-1 lead on Siri's second-inning two-run drive that went an estimated 429-feet to center. Two pitches after moving out of the way of an in-tight pitch from Hudson in his next at-bat, Sirl cut the Tampa Bay deficit to 5-3 with a solo homer in the fourth.
Jo Jo Romero completed 1 1/3 scoreless innings by striking out Siri to end the eighth with a runner on first.
Kelly, the Rays' second pitcher in a bullpen game, allowed three runs and five hits in two innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: OF Tyler O’Neill (left knee tightness) was out of the lineup for the second straight game but might start Thursday night. … RHP Ryan Helsley (right forearm strain) and RHP Jake Woodford (right shoulder strain) were scheduled to pitch for Double-A Springfield against San Antonio, but the game was rained out.
Rays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) played catch for three minutes and hasn’t been ruled out of starting Saturday against Cleveland. A final decision may not come until Saturday.
UP NEXT
Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-4) and Rays RHP Zack Littell (2-2) are set to start Thursday night. Liberatore was part of a January 2020 trade between Tampa Bay and St. Louis that sent 2023 All-Star OF Randy Arozarena to the Rays. ___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
