Rangers 2, Cardinals 1
ST. LOUIS -- The Texas Rangers brought their brooms to Busch Stadium.
Ian Kinsler's two-out RBI single in the top of the seventh inning snapped a 1-1 tie late Sunday night, and the Rangers' bullpen made it hold up for a 2-1 victory over St. Louis. Texas took all three games in the series, marking the first time the Cardinals have been swept this year.
Robbie Ross (4-1) got the last out in the sixth to pick up the win, while Adam Wainwright (10-5) was tagged with his second straight defeat.
Given a 1-0 lead on Matt Carpenter's leadoff homer in the sixth, Wainwright got the first two hitters of the seventh before running into problems.
David Murphy rifled a double off the wall in right, and he scored on Leonys Martin's single to center.
Trevor Rosenthal relieved Wainwright and got pinch hitter Jurickson Profar to hit a soft liner at shortstop Pete Kozma, but the ball went off the heel of Kozma's glove for an error. Kinsler followed with his go-ahead hit.
Joe Nathan earned his third save in as many nights and 25th overall for Texas (44-32), which took a one-game lead over the Oakland A's in the American League West with its fifth straight win.
St. Louis (47-29) saw its National League Central lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates slip to one game.
Wainwright allowed two runs (one earned) in 6 2/3 innings.
Rangers starter Nick Tepesch gave up one run in 5 2/3 innings.
The evening's most powerful display occurred well before the rain-delayed 10:04 CDT p.m. first pitch. A severe thunderstorm with high winds rolled through Busch Stadium just over an hour before the scheduled 7:05 start.
The storm dumped sheets of rain on a field that already absorbed more than its share of it this week. The delay of 2 hours, 59 minutes before Wainwright popped Kinsler up on the game's first pitch was the third stoppage at Busch Stadium this week, totaling 6 hours and 4 minutes.
Once the teams got started, it was as if they were using wet newspapers at the plate. Wainwright allowed just three hits over five innings and fanned five, including the side in the fourth.
However, Tepesch matched the St. Louis ace pitch-for-pitch, not yielding a hit until David Freese's one-out single in the fifth. Jon Jay followed with an infield single, but Tepesch retired Kozma and Wainwright to escape trouble.
NOTES: Texas recalled OF Engel Beltre from Triple-A Round Rock and placed OF Craig Gentry on the 15-day disabled list with a broken left hand suffered when he was hit by a pitch Tuesday against Oakland. Gentry was hitting .216 with one homer and nine RBIs in 51 games with the Rangers, while Beltre was batting .300 with four home runs and 21 RBIs in 72 games for the Express ... St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said RHP Joe Kelly would assume the fifth starter role vacated by LHP Tyler Lyons, demoted to Triple-A Memphis on Saturday. The Cardinals might not need a fifth starter until July 6 because they have three off days on their eight-game, 11-day road trip through the AL West ... St. Louis LF Matt Holliday's eighth-inning, double-play bouncer Saturday was his big-league-leading 20th GIDP, more than twice as many as anyone else has.
