Zack Greinke made himself right at home. Just like the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers have been doing for almost a month.

Greinke pitched into the seventh inning and raised his average to .405 with an RBI single, helping the Dodgers win their 15th straight on the road with a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night. This is the sixth city during the streak.

”I think we kind of thrive on an us-against-the-stadium mentality,” catcher A.J. Ellis said. ”It really brings out the best in ourselves.”

Nick Punto was productive subbing for injured shortstop Hanley Ramirez and the Dodgers got an RBI apiece from Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis while matching the Cincinnati Reds’ 15-game run in 1957. They’re two wins shy of the NL record set by the 1916 New York Giants.

”They’re playing great ball obviously,” losing pitcher Adam Wainwright said. ”I knew that going in, I wanted to end that streak.”

Greinke (9-3) allowed two runs in 6 1-3 innings for his 100th career victory, allowing two hits in the third, fourth and fifth but no runs. Paco Rodriguez earned his second career save with a perfect ninth.

Wainwright (13-7) gave up three runs in seven innings and failed in his third straight attempt at winning his 14th, working seven innings in all three of those starts. He remained tied for the league lead in wins with teammate Lance Lynn and regretted a fat pitch on Punto’s double a lot more than Greinke’s hit off a nasty curveball.

Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig had an RBI apiece for the Cardinals, stifled in the opener of a 10-game homestand after totaling 44 runs the previous four games. They’ve lost nine of 12 overall.

”We score 15 runs and he throws three runs up there in seven innings, it’s a good outing,” manager Mike Matheny said of Greinke. ”It was just one of those days we couldn’t get much going.”

Matheny wasn’t happy about Beltran’s first sacrifice bunt of the season after the first two batters reached in the seventh.

”Sometimes we put them on, sometimes we do it on our own,” Matheny said.

Punto doubled with two outs in the seventh ahead of Greinke’s single that gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead. His relay to the plate preserved a one-run lead in the fifth and denied David Freese of an RBI double, and he made nice defensive plays to end the seventh and eighth.

He’s 6 for 13(.462) against the Cardinals.

Matt Carpenter doubled off the right-field wall in the first inning and took third when Yasiel Puig fumbled the ball, then sprinted home on Beltran’s groundout when Punto sailed a throw over catcher A.J. Ellis’ head.

Running shoe-top catches by Puig in right field and Ethier in center helped Greinke strand three Cardinals in a scoreless third. St. Louis came up empty again in the fourth after opening with singles by Jon Jay and Tony Cruz, and Punto’s relay in the fifth caught Allen Craig at the plate on Freese’s double to right.

”It was just a perfect relay and (Ellis) did a good job tagging,” Greinke said. ”I thought it was a good decision to send him and everything had to be right, and it was.”

The first three Dodgers reached in the fourth, with Adrian Gonzalez stopping at third on Puig’s double off the right-field wall and then scoring on Ethier’s broken-bat single. Puig scored the go-ahead run when Ellis beat the relay on a potential double-play ball.

Wainwright had retired eight in a row before Punto doubled to the opposite-field in left with two outs in the seventh and Greinke lofted a single that made it 3-1.

— Associated Press —

Even when things go horribly wrong on the road, the St. Louis Cardinals can always count on one soothing stop. No matter how deep their slump, it’ll end in Cincinnati.

Matt Carpenter broke his 0-for-23 slump with a bases-loaded double during the decisive rally, and the Cardinals ended a tough trip on the upswing by beating the Reds 15-2 on Sunday.

The Cardinals went 3-8 on a trip that included seven straight losses – four of them in Pittsburgh, allowing the Pirates to overtake them for the NL Central lead. On their final stop, an offense that couldn’t do much of anything found a little bit of everything.

”Offensively, we did a terrific job,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”We had a little bit of everything – some power, some good situational hitting, made the (defensive) plays.”

It’s been like that against the Reds lately.

St. Louis took two of three at Great American Ball Park and has won its last six series against Cincinnati, its best such stretch against the Reds since 2003-04. The Cardinals lead the season series 8-4.

”Some teams you play better than others, but they’ve got our number for sure,” said Reds starter Mike Leake (10-5), who gave up a season-high seven runs. ”They play us tough. It’s on us to try to figure them out because they’ve got us figured out for the most part.”

The Cardinals scored their most runs against Cincinnati since 1993. They’ve scored at least 10 runs against the Reds in four games this season, the first time they’ve done that since 1980.

Carpenter’s two-run double off the wall completed a five-run rally in the sixth against Leake and two relievers, setting up another blowout.

”It’s a great feeling,” Carpenter said. ”It’s even better that we come back and win the series in a convincing fashion. It was fun to join in on the action.”

Matt Adams, David Freese and Tony Cruz homered for the Cardinals, who have scored 13, 13, 3 and 15 runs in their last four games.

St. Louis finished with 19 hits and a season high in runs. Every starter except Lance Lynn drove in at least one run.

Lynn (13-5) allowed four hits in eight innings, including Zack Cozart’s two-run homer. Lynn struck out a season-high 11 and joined Adam Wainwright as 13-game winners in a rotation that has the NL’s third-best ERA.

”I had pretty good command of all four pitches, and I was able to use all of them on both sides of the plate,” Lynn said. ”That makes it a lot easier to pitch. Between my last three starts, I’ve had the best stuff I’ve had all year. ”

The Reds have dropped seven of nine, leaving the defending NL Central champions marooned in third place.

The Cardinals scored in the first inning of all three games of the series. They scored four off Bronson Arroyo on Friday night, one on Saturday and four more on Sunday off Leake, who had allowed a total of four runs in his last three starts combined.

Matt Holliday and Freese had RBI doubles, and Adams hit a two-run homer – his first since July 6 – for the 4-0 lead only 19 pitches into the game. Holliday improved to 9 for 20 career off Leake.

The Cardinals sent 10 batters to the plate for five runs in the sixth, aided by a pair of errors. They opened the inning with five consecutive hits, and Carpenter’s two-run double off Logan Ondrusek made it 9-2 and gave the second baseman relief from his personal slump.

”At that point, I was so relieved to just put the barrel of the bat on the ball that I didn’t care what happened,” Carpenter said.

The Cardinals hit only nine homers in July, including one after the All-Star break. They had six in three days at Great American Ball Park.

Reds third baseman Todd Frazier went without a hit for his ninth straight game, leaving him in an 0-for-28 slump. It’s the longest by a Reds player since Drew Stubbs went 0 for 32 midway through last season.

— Associated Press —

Heading into the second game of their series against the St. Louis Cardinals, manager Dusty Baker knew his struggling Reds couldn’t wait much longer to break out of their week-long funk.

”We need to beat these Cardinals,” Baker said. ”We can’t have them thinking they can just throw their gloves out there and beat us.”

This time, the Reds applied the beating.

Devin Mesoraco drove in three runs with a pair of homers, and the Reds finally broke out against a St. Louis team that has held them down all season, beating the Cardinals 8-3 on Saturday night to even their series.

The Reds won for only the fourth time in 11 games between the NL Central rivals. Cincinnati had scored fewer than four runs in each of their last nine games head-to-head.

”It’s pretty big,” left-hander Tony Cingrani said. ”We’ve been on a pretty rough stretch.”

And not just against St. Louis. The defending NL Central champions are mired in third place because their offense has gone missing, scoring four or fewer runs in each of the last seven games. Jack Hannahan singled home a pair of runs in the first inning, and the Reds were back in the swing.

”That calms everybody down,” Mesoraco said. ”Now you’re coming back, you feel good and confident.”

Cingrani (5-1) and four relievers contained an offense that had scored 26 runs in the last two games, allowing four hits.

Jake Westbrook (7-6) gave up five runs – all with two outs – in five innings. Hannahan singled with the bases loaded in the first inning. Mesoraco’s homer in the fourth made it 4-1.

The catcher hit a solo shot in the eighth off Michael Blazek for the first multihomer game of his career. Shin-Soo Choo followed with a two-run homer off Blazek.

The Cardinals ended a seven-game losing streak by beating the Pirates 13-0 on Thursday, then came to Cincinnati and drubbed the Reds 13-3 on Friday night. It was the first time since 2003 that they scored 13 runs in back-to-back games.

They got off to a fast start against Cingrani, making his first career appearance against the Cardinals. Jon Jay opened the game with a walk and came around on Carlos Beltran’s double. Cingrani bounced his next pitch, letting Beltran move to third, but that’s all the Cardinals would manage as the left-hander escaped the 30-pitch inning down only 1-0.

Cingrani left after the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth. Grounders by Rob Johnson and pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter drove in runs that cut it to 5-3.

Westbrook threw a five-hitter for a 10-0 win over Cincinnati on April 10. He lost his shutout right away this time. Westbrook gave up a hit and a pair of walks in the first, including an intentional walk to Jay Bruce that brought up Hannahan with the bases loaded and two outs. Hannahan, who was 0 for 4 career against Westbrook, lined a 2-2 pitch to center for a 2-1 lead.

”The hit of the game was the two-out hit by Jack Hannahan,” Baker said. ”It was nice to see some of the guys swinging that way tonight. It looked pretty good tonight.”

It was the second game in a row that Westbrook had trouble in the opening inning. He gave up four runs in the first inning of a 9-2 loss in Pittsburgh on Monday.

”I couldn’t finish off innings,” Westbrook said. ”I’d get a couple of quick outs and I couldn’t put them away. That was a subpar performance for me. I felt like I pitched better today than in my last start. I was making decent pitches.”

Mesoraco’s homer was only the fifth that Westbrook has allowed in his 16 starts this season.

Westbrook walked five batters in five innings, and three of them scored. Joey Votto got the second of his three walks with two outs in the fifth and came around on Brandon Phillips’ double.

— Associated Press —