By MATT PIKE
After a hot series against the Kansas City Royals, Ezequiel Duran had three hits for the Texas Rangers, helping starting pitcher Jacob deGrom to earn his 100th career win as he tossed five scoreless innings, as the Rangers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 at Busch Stadium.
A two-time NL Cy Young Award winner, deGrom allowed four hits and struck out eight Cardinals in his fourth attempt at the milestone victory. The right-hander went 1/3 with a 5.72 ERA in five May starts and has not won this season when allowing multiple runs. Countered by Redbirds starting pitcher Michael McGreevy, McGreevy gave up two runs on five hits and two walks, striking out one, in six innings after yielding eight runs in nine innings over his previous two starts, as he fell to 3-5 on the season.
Duran gave the Rangers the advantage in the fourth inning, lining an RBI double to the left-field wall to drive in Brandon Nimmo and give Texas a 1-0 lead. Joc Pederson hit an RBI single up the middle in the fifth inning to drive in Danny Jansen after Jansen walked, stole second base and advanced to third on Nicky Lopez's single to extend the lead.
The Cardinals got their lone run in the sixth inning as Masyn Winn lined his second home run of the season down the left-field line off reliever Peyton Gray to cut Texas’ lead to 2-1. Following the home run, St. Louis did not get another base runner on way to the end of the game, as Jacob Latz pitched a perfect ninth for his eighth save to help the Rangers win their fourth straight game.
At the plate, the Cardinals had five batters with one hit each. Winn was 1-for-4 with the home run and an RBI. Bryan Torres and Alec Burleson were also 1-for-4 on the evening.
St. Louis continues their series with Texas tomorrow. Dustin May (3-6, 4.57 ERA, 51K's) takes the mound in the middle game of the series for the Cardinals against Nathan Eovaldi (5-6, 3.93 ERA, 67K's) for the Rangers. First pitch is at 6:45pm, coverage will begin at 6:35 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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