A detour to the bullpen has made Lance Lynn a better starting pitcher.

Lynn allowed only an inside-the-park homer to Alex Presley in seven innings, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Filling in nicely for injured ace Chris Carpenter, Lynn (3-0) gave up four hits. He walked one and struck out four. He has won each of his starts this season and compiled a 1.42 ERA, while Carpenter has been on the disabled list with a nerve problem in his pitching shoulder. Lynn pitched primarily in relief last season as a rookie when St. Louis won the World Series.

“What I did when they moved me to the bullpen last year was challenge hitters, get ahead in the count and make them hit my pitch,” Lynn said. “When I was starting, I tried to nitpick. I’d get behind in the count and have to give the hitters good pitches to hit. I learned a lot from pitching out of the bullpen. I’m more aggressive and more confident now as a starter.”

Lynn showed that aggressive approach against Pittsburgh as he needed just 88 pitches to get through seven innings. He allowed four hits and one walk while striking out four.

“Efficient is the right word,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said in describing Lynn’s outing. “He had good life on the ball and later in the game he really mixed in all his pitches. He had a good tempo, a good rhythm with (catcher Yadier Molina). He really kept them off balance.”

Presley led off the bottom of the first with a drive off the top of the center field fence, the ball just eluding a leaping center fielder Skip Schumaker. Jack Wilson hit the Pirates’ only other inside-the-park home run at PNC Park on July 2, 2004, and the last Pittsburgh player to hit one was Freddy Sanchez at Houston on July 21, 2008.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” Presley said. “I thought I had a triple for sure, and when I saw him miss it, I think he got hurt out there and couldn’t get up, that helped my chances a bunch. It was one of those things.”

Schumaker, who said he thought he would be able to play Saturday, was shaken up on the play and left the game. He had been activated from the disabled list prior to the game after missing the first 13 games because of a strained right oblique.

“Obviously it was not the debut I was looking for,” Schumaker said with a half-smile. “First of all, I should of caught the ball. Second of all, I couldn’t breathe. Coming off an oblique injury and getting your ribs rattled wasn’t something you wanted to do. They pulled me as a precautionary measure. I felt I could have stayed in but it is what it is.”

Jose Tabata followed Presley’s homer with a single but Pittsburgh never put a runner in scoring position.

“You get an inside-the-park homer and drop a single to the next guy and we ended up with two more (hits) the rest of the night,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “It was another strong outing for (Lynn). You have to take the barrel to him. He doesn’t seem like he’s going to hurt himself.”

Lynn also scored the go-ahead run on Carlos Beltran’s two-out single in the fifth inning off Charlie Morton (0-1).

Daniel Descalso homered for the NL Central-leading Cardinals, who won for the fifth time in six games.

Morton allowed two runs — one earned — and four hits in five innings with three walks and six strikeouts.

Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte, who notched his third save in three tries, each pitched a hitless inning to complete the four-hitter for St. Louis.

After St. Louis tied it in the second inning on Molina’s RBI double, Lynn led off the fifth with a single. He took second on Rafael Furcal’s groundout, advanced to third on Matt Holliday’s fielder’s choice and scored on Beltran’s line hit to right field.

Descalso homered — a liner into the right-field stands — in the eighth off Jared Hughes to start a two-run inning. Furcal added a run-scoring double.

— Associated Press —

It was a day of firsts for several Cincinnati Reds hitters. And another day to forget for Adam Wainwright.

Brandon Phillips homered for his first RBI of the season and Drew Stubbs homered for his first extra-base hit Thursday as the Reds backed soft-tossing Bronson Arroyo’s eight innings and broke loose for a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals that averted a three-game sweep.

“It’s been so long since we played a game like that,” manager Dusty Baker said. “I’m just glad our offense got clicking.”

Ryan Ludwick also homered for the Reds, who had connected just once in their previous nine games and began the day with a .211 batting average.

The Reds picked on Wainwright (0-3), a 20-game winner in 2010 coming off reconstructive elbow surgery that sidelined him all of 2011.

Wainwright is winless in his first three decisions for the first time in his career. He allowed multiple home runs in consecutive starts for just the second time ever.

“His velocity is a little bit down,” Ludwick said. “I feel like we were able to take advantage of it a little bit and in that scenario, you’ve got to. When he’s on, when he gets back to 100 percent, he’s one of those guys that sometimes you’re lucky to get one run against.”

Though he said it was a “valid question” to ask whether the comeback had been a lot tougher than he had anticipated, Wainwright added, “I’m just in a funk.”

“You can say whatever you want to about surgery and all that,” he said. “My arm feels fine, I’m just not throwing great.”

Wainwright allowed four runs in five innings, leaving him with a 9.88 ERA. He thought his fastball had more life and that his curveball also was improved, but “my cutter was brutal, and that’s what both home runs were on.”

Phillips hit his first homer since Sept. 20 against the Astros, a span of 53 at-bats, and earned his first RBI in 40 at-bats. Stubbs was 3 for 5 and the homer was his first extra-base hit in 50 at-bats.

Ludwick’s two-run homer was the Reds’ second in a span of three at-bats in the fourth. Stubbs hit his first off Victor Marte in the seventh.

Matt Holliday’s three-run homer in the sixth was the only damage against Arroyo (1-0), who struck out five and walked none while scattering five hits. Arroyo threw just 90 pitches.

“He doesn’t throw any fastballs on fastball counts,” Holliday said. “He mixes it up, slow, slow and slower, and then he’ll sneak his fastball in there. He had us off-balance.”

Joey Votto added an RBI single in the Reds ninth off Fernando Salas. Sean Marshall struck out the side after allowing a leadoff hit in the ninth for his second save in second chances.

Cardinals center fielder Jon Jay left after the seventh with a sprained right shoulder after bumping into the wall trying to snare Stubbs’ homer. Jay said X-rays showed no significant damage and said he was day to day.

“I was about to make my jump and just miscalculated my steps,” Jay said. “It’s not too bad. Tomorrow is going to be a bigger day.”

Earlier Thursday, general manager John Mozeliak said first baseman Lance Berkman would be placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left calf injury. The Cardinals plan on activating utilityman Skip Schumaker from the 15-day disabled list from a pulled right side muscle sustained in spring training.

“If you can’t run, you can’t play,” Berkman said after the game. “It’s not really that tough of a decision.”

Phillips got his RBI with one out in the third, Jay Bruce followed with a single and Ludwick hit the next pitch beyond the visitor’s bullpen.

Arroyo allowed two hits the first five innings, but the Cardinals opened the sixth with three straight hits. Rafael Furcal and Jay singled before Holliday, who had been 3 for 26 on the homestand, hit his third homer to cut the deficit to 4-3.

The NL Central-leading Cardinals are 9-4. A sweep over the Reds would have given the franchise its best start to the season since it was 13-3 in 1982, a World Series title year.

— Associated Press —