Adam's homer ends pitchers' duel, lifts Cardinals over Reds

ST. LOUIS -- Matt Adams usually has a problem against change-of-speed pitchers such as Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo.

"I have a hard time staying back and being patient," he said.

Adams did both Tuesday night and launched the homer that turned a taut pitching duel around, putting St. Louis ahead for good in a 5-1 win in front of 37,731 at Busch Stadium.

Jumping all over a 1-1 curve, Adams belted it into the Cardinals' bullpen, a 403-foot shot to right-center field with Daniel Descalso aboard that gave St. Louis (4-4) a 2-1 lead. It was the first pinch-hit homer of Adams' short career, which started with 27 games last year.

Adams, who's adjusting to coming off the bench behind Allen Craig after being a starter throughout a successful four-year journey in the Cardinals' farm system, yelled in delight as he rounded first.

"I've been trying to develop a routine," he said of his new reserve role. "Knowing when you need to stretch, trying to follow the pitchers and see how our pitcher is doing so that I know when to take some swings in the cage."

Arroyo (1-1) retired the first 15 men he faced, but suddenly lost his command in St. Louis' four-run sixth, beginning with Descalso's leadoff double that forced Arroyo into the stretch for the first time.

The veteran right-hander never regained his rhythm, yielding three more hits and two more runs in the sixth. Craig's infield out upped the margin to 3-1 and Carlos Beltran capped the rally with an RBI single.

"The home run can be a rally killer sometimes, but our guys kept putting good swings on (Arroyo) after the homer," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

Lance Lynn (1-0) fanned 10 and allowed just four hits in six innings for St. Louis. Its bullpen, which coughed up 10 runs in the last two innings of Monday's 13-4 loss, worked three scoreless innings in this one.

Lynn was coming off a shaky start Wednesday night at Arizona, where he allowed six hits and four runs over four innings in the Cardinals' 10-9, 16-inning defeat.

"Less walks, more strikes, less barrels and less hits," Lynn said when asked what he corrected from his first start. "The ball seems to not do what you want to (in Arizona), but you look back on it and I didn't concentrate as much as I should have."

Both pitchers set the tone right away, retiring the first nine men they faced and doing so in different fashions.

Lynn did it with power, striking out six and touching 95 mph with a late-moving fastball. Arroyo varied speeds and spins, whiffing only two but permitting few hard-hit balls.

Lynn cracked a little bit in the fourth, yielding consecutive one-out singles to Zack Cozart and Joey Votto that put runners on the corners. Brandon Phillips followed with a sacrifice fly to deep left -- Matt Holliday made a nice sliding catch near the warning track -- for the first run.

"That was the game to me," Phillips said. "If he doesn't make that play, we might get three or four runs. I didn't think he was going to get there, but he made a great catch."

The Reds (5-3) could have added to their slim lead in the top of the sixth, but Jay Bruce grounded out to second with men on second and third and two outs.

"The difference tonight was we didn't get the hits with men on base, like we did Monday," Phillips said. "They got the hits in the sixth inning. That's the way it goes in baseball."

NOTES: St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak announced before the game that closer Jason Motte's aching right elbow hasn't improved and that season-ending Tommy John surgery is likely if Motte remains "symptomatic" by May 1. Motte bagged 42 saves last year, his first as a full-time closer. ... Cincinnati's Derrick Robinson picked up his first start Tuesday night, batting seventh and playing left field in place of normal starter Chris Heisey. ... The Cardinals are the first team to be involved in nine-run innings in consecutive games since they did it in August 2003 against Pittsburgh. St. Louis scored nine in the fourth inning of a Sunday win at San Francisco and yielded nine in the top of the ninth Monday.