Dakota Hudson and a quartet of relievers combined to help the St. Louis Cardinals stop San Francisco's six-game winning streak, blanking the Giants 4-0 on Saturday.
The Cardinals pitched their sixth shutout of the season. The Los Angeles Angels began the day with a major league-leading seven shutouts.
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“You're going to have to win ballgames the way we just did where we pitch well, play good defense, we make good decisions and score three or four runs," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “There'll be a stretch where we hit, but you still have to win ballgames when you're not feeling great. That's what we did today."
Yadier Molina doubled, singled and scored a run. He opened the second with a double off the top of the right-center field wall for his 2,128th career hit, moving him past Mike Piazza for sixth most among catchers.
St. Louis led 1-0 in the fifth when the Giants put runners at first and third with two outs. Molina threw out Joc Pederson trying to steal second to end the inning.
“I got a pretty good idea that they liked to do that,” Molina said. “I'm glad that we executed that play pretty well. I'm happy for that.”
Tommy Edman homered as the Cardinals won for the second time in seven games. St. Louis has homered in 10 straight games.
Hudson (3-2) worked around five hits and two walks in five innings. Génesis Cabrera, Andre Pallante, Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos teamed up to pitch the final four innings.
“Pretty much as advertised and who he's been this season,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said about Hudson. “It's a groundball style. It's an attack the strike zone style. He did a nice job of keeping us off balance, and we weren't able to get the big hit.”
Helsley took over for Pallante with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh. He got Brandon Belt to ground into a double play to protect a 2-0 lead.
“That was huge,” Helsley said. “Bases loaded there, if he hits a single, possibly two score then it's a tie game. I was able to get some weak contact and get the double play ball.”
Helsley, who made his first appearance since May 6, has thrown 15 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings dating to last Aug. 7.
Jakob Junis (1-1) allowed two runs on six hits and struck out three in 5 2/3 innings in his second start of the season. San Francisco has lost nine of its last 12 games in St. Louis.
“As they've all been, high quality,” Kapler said about Junis' outing. “Lots of strikes, good slider, gave us a chance to win the game.”
Edman’s fourth home run of the season in the fifth gave the Cardinals home runs in a season-best 10 straight games.
Brendan Donovan doubled home Molina for an early lead.
Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado hit RBI doubles off former Cardinals pitcher John Brebbia in the seventh.
GIANTS ON THE MOVE
San Francisco traded utilityman Mauricio Dubón to Houston for minor league catcher Michael Papierski, who will report to Triple-A Sacramento. The Giants recalled infielder Donovan Walton from Sacramento prior to the game. Walton, who was acquired from Seattle on Wednesday, started at second base and hit a double in the seventh inning.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: INF Tommy La Stella (right Achilles inflammation) went 2 for 5 with a grand slam with Triple-A Sacramento in the seventh game of his rehab assignment.
Cardinals: Activated RHP Drew VerHagen (right hip impingement) from the injured list and optioned LHP Packy Naughton to Triple-A Memphis.
UP NEXT
The Cardinals will activate RHP Adam Wainwright (3-3, 3.18 ERA) off the COVID-19 injured list to start Sunday night in the final game of the three-game series. The Giants will start LHP Carlos Rodón (4-1, 1.80 ERA) who is 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA in three career starts against St. Louis.
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