Lynn's 'odd' first, quiet bats nix Cards' sweep dreams

ANAHEIM -- The Cardinals played some exciting baseball -- or nerve-wrecking, depending on your point of view -- during their three-game winning streak that extended from Milwaukee to Anaheim.

After consecutive comeback wins on Sunday and Monday -- both of which erased deficits of three runs or more -- and a nailbiter of a win on Tuesday, the Cardinals dropped the series finale against the Angels, 7-2, on Wednesday at Angel Stadium. It was a relatively straightforward defeat, a game that did not feature the up-and-down theatrics of the prior three.

"You definitely want to win the series. We had an opportunity to sweep and didn’t," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "I still like what we saw today out of a lot of guys. The at-bats, the defense looked good. We didn’t score enough or create enough opportunities, but overall there were some positives today, and a series win."

The Cardinals found themselves in a suboptimal position right out of the gate. Lance Lynn allowed four earned runs in a first inning that featured a combination of bad pitching and tough luck.

Things started with a leadoff home run from Nolan Schanuel. Luis Guillorme followed with a ground ball that looked like a sure out to shortstop Masyn Winn -- except the ball hit second base and ricocheted into the outfield. Two batters later, Willie Calhoun doubled home the second run and reached third base on a throwing error by Winn.

Bad luck entered the equation again when a Kevin Pillar comebacker bounced off Lynn and allowed the third run of the inning to score. The fourth and final run of the inning scored on Lynn's first wild pitch of the season. All told, it was a chaotic inning for the veteran right-hander and the Cardinals, and ultimately an inning that would undo them.

"Kind of some bad luck in the first [inning]," Lynn said. "I gave up a home run, but the two ground balls -- one off the bag and one off my leg -- if those are outs, maybe that inning turns into only one run."

To Lynn’s credit, he recovered well, throwing four scoreless frames to complete his start. But it also marked Lynn’s third straight start of four earned runs, compared to his first six starts of the season when he only allowed four earned runs once. After running a 2.64 ERA through his first six starts, Lynn’s ERA stands at 4.17 after his last three outings.

“It almost felt like he started to get going as the game went on. It started off a little slow, but the fourth and fifth [innings] were much better for him,” Marmol said of Lynn's game. "That first inning was just a little odd. But he kept it there [at four runs], and gave us a shot.”

Lynn also didn’t have the luxury of the offensive support that his fellow Cardinals starters had in the first two games of the series. Even though Matthew Liberatore (four earned runs on Monday) and Sonny Gray (five earned runs on Tuesday) didn’t have great outings, the Cardinals' offense made up for it by collecting 22 hits and 17 runs en route to wins.

The offense fell flat on Wednesday against Griffin Canning, who had one of his best starts of the season. Entering the start with a 5.75 ERA -- seventh-worst among pitchers with at least 40 innings -- Canning allowed just one earned run in six innings against the Cardinals. It was, however, Canning’s second straight solid outing, as he didn’t allow a run in 5 2/3 innings against the Royals in his previous performance.

In better news, there were continued signs of life from Paul Goldschmidt. The 36-year-old hit his fourth homer of the season and has now hit safely in five straight games, his longest such stretch this year. This followed a stretch where Goldschmidt went hitless in his first seven games in May.

It was also the second straight strong game from Alec Burleson, who finished a triple shy of the cycle in Tuesday night’s win and had another multihit effort on Wednesday.

Burleson also had a pair of defensive gems in left field, including making a perfect throw to first base to complete an inning-ending double play in the second inning.

"I thought he did a nice job. It doesn’t matter where we put him. Left or right field or first base. He’s making plays," Marmol said of Burleson. "This was a big point of emphasis for him this offseason, of being playable out there and earning the trust to be able to play defense. He’s done exactly that."