DeJong, Lynn guide Cardinals to win against Reds

CINCINNATI — Paul DeJong is putting his rocky August start behind him.

The St. Louis rookie shortstop hit a two-run homer and Lance Lynn got past Joey Votto's first-inning home run to win his fourth straight start as the Cardinals eased past the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 on Saturday night.

DeJong snapped an 0-for-16 slump with two hits on Friday and followed that up with his goahead shot into the left field seats on a 1-0 fastball with one out in the third inning on Saturday. It was the Cardinals' first hit of the game. The homer was his 15th of the season and first since July 25.

"Guys are making adjustments on me," said DeJong, the first Cardinal to reach 15 homers this season. "They know I'm aggressive in the zone and aggressive outside the zone. I'm seeing more patterns. It's kind of a cat-and-mouse game."

DeJong, the National League Rookie of the Month for July, needed 57 games to reach 15 homers with St. Louis after hitting 13 in 48 at Triple-A Memphis.

"When you do it at Memphis, you don't know how it's going to translate here," manager Mike Matheny said. "It's nice that he's been able to make the adjustments. He's got a pretty special skill set."

Lynn (10-6), in his first start since the July 31 trade deadline, retired 12 of the last 14 batters he faced, walking Votto twice. The right-hander, who was rumored to possibly be on the block. limited the Reds to three hits and a run with three walks and four strikeouts.

He never felt like he was auditioning before the deadline, he said.

"I'm pitching for one team to win, and I'm pitching for myself," he said. "I don't care what other teams think."

Seung Hwan Oh allowed a harmless two-out single in the seventh, Tyler Lyons struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth — including Votto looking to end the inning — and Trevor Rosenthal worked around a walk and a single in the ninth for his eighth save in 10 chances.

The win was the Cardinals' first in six games at Cincinnati this season and the first in their last six overall decided by more than one run.

Cincinnati rookie Luis Castillo (2-5) struggled with his control, tying his season and career high with

five walks and hitting two batters while giving up four runs — three earned. The Cardinals collected just three hits with four strikeouts in his 61/3 innings.

"I didn't have my best stuff," Castillo said through an interpreter. "These are days you have to compete and stay longer in the game. Mentally, I just stay 100 percent focused and try to compete."

"I thought his stuff was really good," manager Bryan Price." His command wasn't there for him as much today. Four hits total, but they had nine base runners via walks and hit by pitches. That kind of set the table for them."

Votto drove a 1-1 curveball into the right field seats for his 28th homer of the season, one shy of matching his total from last season. Adam Duvall followed with a drive that seemed to glance off center fielder Tommy Pham's glove and squarely hit the top of the outfield wall before bouncing back on the field for a triple.

Lynn coaxed Scooter Bennett into flying out to right field to end the threat.

"You don't want to let things snowball," Lynn said. "I made two bad pitches, and one cost me a run. The second one would've if Tommy hadn't gotten a glove on it. Other than that, I thought it went pretty good."

The Cardinals pushed across two insurance runs in the seventh on Pham's bases-loaded infield hit and a passed ball charged to Devin Mesoraco. BRAVES 7, MARLINS 2 Mike Foltzynewicz had a career-high 11 strikeouts, Freddie Freeman hit a three-run homer and Atlanta beat Miami. Miami led 1-0 in the sixth when Giancarlo Stanton slugged his 36th homer, most in the majors. One night after homering twice, Stanton crushed Foltynewicz’s fastball deep into the seats in the left field, but the Braves took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning on Freeman’s RBI single and Nick Markakis’ RBI double.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

RANGERS 4, TWINS 1 Cole Hamels threw the 16th complete game of his career — his first in nearly two years — and turned in his most efficient start of the season to lead Texas past Minnesota. With Hamels dominating on the mound, Nomar Mazara’s first-inning, two-run homer off Kyle Gibson (6-9) was all the offense Texas needed to beat the Twins.

RED SOX 4, WHITE SOX 1 Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit two-run homers, and Drew Pomeranz won a career-best fifth straight decision to help Boston beat Chicago. Pomeranz (11-4) gave up Tim Anderson’s homer on the second pitch of the game, but didn’t allow another run before leaving with a 4-1 lead with one out in the seventh. Since starting the season 3-3, Pomeranz has lost just once in 15 starts.

YANKEES 2, INDIANS 1 Brett Gardner and Ronald Torreyes made sensational defensive plays in the ninth inning to save Aroldis Chapman from another late-inning meltdown in Progressive Field, and New York hung on to stop a four-game losing streak. Chapman (4-2), making his first appearance in Cleveland since Game 7 of last year’s World Series for the Chicago Cubs, allowed a leadoff single in the ninth before Jose Ramirez hit a fly to deep left that Gardner grabbed with a jump on the warning track. Edwin Encarnacion then hit a blooper toward right that Torreyes ran down with a dive.

BLUE JAYS 4, ASTROS 3 (10) Ryan Goins hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the 10th inning, and Toronto rallied to beat Houston. Goins hit the two-out single to left field off Francisco Liriano (6-7), and Rob Refsnyder touched home plate with his left hand just before Brian McCann tagged him. The Astros challenged the call, which stood after a nearly two-minute review.