Cardinals 15, Reds 2
CINCINNATI -- Matt Adams hit a two-run homer and David Freese added three hits and a solo shot as the St. Louis Cardinals continued their power resurgence during a 15-2 romp over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
Tony Cruz contributed his first home run of the season and Matt Carpenter showed signs of snapping his slump with a two-run double as the Cardinals set a season high for runs while winning their second game of the three-game series.
The victory gave them six consecutive series wins over their National League Central rival dating to a three-game sweep by the Reds to open the second half of the 2012 season.
The Cardinals (65-45) improved to 8-4 against the Reds (61-51) this season while finishing 3-8 on their 11-game, 10-day road trip.
St. Louis already already has hit six home runs in August after collecting a major-league low nine in July while scoring 13 or more runs in three of their first four games this month.
Lance Lynn allowed two runs in eight innings to improve to 3-0 in four starts against the Reds this season. Lynn (13-5) allowed four hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts.
The Cardinals, who scored four runs in the first inning of Friday's 13-3 win in the series opener, scored four with two outs in the opening inning on Sunday. Allen Craig's single was followed by back-to-back doubles from Matt Holliday and Freese before Adams' 362-foot homer into the right field seats on a 1-1 pitch from Mike Leake.
The homer was the eighth of the season and first since July 6 for Adams, who started at first base while Craig moved to right field to give Carlos Beltran a day off.
Cincinnati shortstop Zack Cozart cut the lead in half in the second with his ninth homer of the season, a 425-foot two-run, two-out shot into the second deck in left field on a 2-0 pitch from Lynn.
The Cardinals knocked Leake out of the game with a five-run fifth capped by Carpenter's bases-loaded double that bounced off the top of the fence in front of the visitors' bullpen down the right field line, missing a grand-slam home run by inches but still snapping Carpenter's streak of consecutive hitless at-bats at 23.
Leake (10-5), who had won his last three decisions, set a season high and tied his career high by allowing seven runs. He gave up eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
Freese led off the seventh against Pedro Villareal with his sixth home run of the season and first since June 25. Craig added an RBI single in the eighth.
Cruz smacked a 368-foot homer into the left field seats in the ninth to spark a four-run inning.
NOTES: Beltran got Sunday's day game off after Saturdays night game. ... Reds 1B Joey Votto singled in the seventh inning to extended his hitting streak against the Cardinals to 12 games (16-for-39, .410). ... Reds 3B Todd Frazier went 0-for-3 and now is hitless in his last 28 at-bats spanning nine games. ... The Cardinals return to St. Louis to open a 10-game homestand with four against Los Angeles starting Monday night. Sunday's game was their 14th in a grueling stretch of 21 games in 20 days. ... The Reds are off Monday before opening a two-game interleague series against Oakland. The Athletics swept a two-game series against the Reds in Oakland.