Cardinals 4, Phillies 1
ST. LOUIS -- Apparently, a 13-day break between starts was good for Shelby Miller.
The St. Louis rookie right-hander tossed six scoreless innings Tuesday night as the Cardinals dumped Philadelphia 4-1 in front of the season's 17th sellout crowd at Busch Stadium.
In his first outing since muddling through five erratic innings in a no-decision July 10 against Houston, Miller (10-6) allowed just three hits and a walk while fanning six. He threw 62 of his 85 pitches for strikes in posting his first win since July 3.
Four relievers picked up the last nine outs for St. Louis (60-37), with Edward Mujica working around two singles in the ninth for his 29th save in 31 tries. The Cardinals maintained a 1 1/2-game lead in the National League Central over the Pittsburgh Pirates, a 5-1 winner in Washington.
Allen Craig delivered two hits and two RBIs for the Cardinals, including a run-scoring single in the bottom of the seventh. That boosted him into a tie for the National League RBI lead with Paul Goldschmidt (Arizona) and Brandon Phillips (Cincinnati) with 79.
Jonathan Pettibone (5-4) absorbed the loss for the Phillies (49-51), yielding seven hits, three walks and three runs over five innings.
Philadelphia scored its only run in the seventh when John Mayberry Jr. drilled a two-out double to the wall in left-center, scoring Darin Ruf.
St. Louis got on the board in the first inning on Craig's fielder's choice, his 78th RBI of the year. The grounder scored Matt Carpenter, who led off with a single, moved to second on a Jon Jay single and reached third on Carlos Beltran's fielder's choice.
The Cardinals plated two more in the fourth on four straight hits. Craig and Yadier Molina doubled down the left field line on consecutive pitches to make it 2-0. Matt Adams singled Molina to third, and David Freese punched an RBI single to right.
NOTES: St. Louis LF Matt Holliday ran full speed through the outfield during batting practice and said he could play if he were eligible to come off the disabled list. Holliday, who strained his right hamstring July 11 in a game at Chicago against the Cubs, can return from the DL Saturday in Atlanta ... Philadelphia placed LHP Joe Savery (left elbow stiffness) on the DL and called up LHP Raul Valdes from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Savery is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings over 10 outings ... Cardinals RHP Chris Carpenter is halting his rehab assignment after feeling numbness in his right hand during Saturday's outing with Triple-A Memphis. Carpenter gave up 15 hits and seven runs, six earned, over six innings in two minor league starts last week.
