Joe Kelly tossed six strong innings and Matt Holliday drove in a run for a seventh straight game, lifting the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

St. Louis has won six of its last seven, including the first two games of this three-game set. The first-place Cardinals have won eight of their last 10 against the third-place Reds and lead them by 4 1/2 games in the NL Central.

The Cards also moved 1 1/2 games ahead of second-place Pittsburgh, which lost to Milwaukee.

Shin-soo Choo homered for Cincinnati, which lost for the fourth time in five games. The Cardinals retired the last 13 Cincinnati batters, dropping the Reds to 4-10 against St. Louis this season.

Kelly (6-3), who allowed one run on nine hits, improved to 6-0 in nine starts since rejoining the starting rotation on July 6. The Cardinals have won the last six games he has started. Kelly began the season in the bullpen.

Holliday, who went 2 for 3, keyed a two-run outburst in the first against Mat Latos (13-5), who gave up four runs on nine hits over six innings. He struck out four and did not walk a batter.

Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt had an eight-game RBI streak in early June – a season best in MLB.

The Cardinals needed just 14 pitches to take a 2-0 lead. Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran began the opening frame with singles. Holliday followed with a hit to right to bring in Carpenter, who scored his major league-leading 100th run. Allen Craig then hit into a double play, allowing Beltran to score from third.

Choo brought the Reds to 2-1 with a leadoff homer in the fifth, the 100th round-tripper of his career and 17th of the season.

The Cardinals answered with single runs in the sixth and seventh and scored twice in the eighth.

Craig pushed the lead to 3-1 with his team-leading 96th RBI on a run-scoring double in the sixth. Carpenter brought in Jon Jay with a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Jay and Daniel Descalso singled to start the inning.

— Associated Press —

The St. Louis Cardinals needed a big hit with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh inning on Monday night. Fortunately for them, they had Allen Craig at the plate.

Craig hit his first career grand slam, helping the Cardinals rally for an 8-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

Matt Holliday also had a long three-run homer as St. Louis moved into sole possession of first place in the NL Central for the first time since July 29. The Cardinals lead idle Pittsburgh by a half-game and Cincinnati by 3 1/2 games in the top-heavy division.

Craig is 7 for 10 with 20 RBIs this season with the bases full.

“I think I’ve developed a pretty good approach that allows me to be successful in that position,” Craig said. “I go up there confident and I believe in myself.”

Rookie Carlos Martinez (1-1) pitched two innings for his first major league win and Edward Mujica worked a perfect ninth for his 35th save.

Zack Cozart had two hits and three RBIs for the Reds, who dropped to 4-9 against St. Louis this season. Jay Bruce hit his 25th homer in the eighth.

Cozart and Todd Frazier each hit a two-run triple off Tyler Lyons in the second, helping Cincinnati to a 4-0 lead. But Holliday belted a three-run drive deep to left in the third.

Holliday’s 18th homer came against Mike Leake and traveled an estimated 442 feet for the longest shot by a St. Louis player at Busch Stadium this season.

“What it comes down to is that guys are just swinging the bats,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said.

The Cardinals went ahead to stay in the seventh. Jon Jay drove in a run with a bases-loaded grounder off Manny Parra (1-3). J.J. Hoover then came in and walked Holliday on a full-count pitch and Craig drove the next pitch over the wall in right for his 13th homer.

“I left it a little too much out over the plate,” said Hoover, who has allowed three grand slams this season. “I knew he’s a good hitter with the bases loaded and I didn’t want to come in there on the first pitch.”

Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker said Craig’s drive was “devastating.”

“They have a lot of dangerous hitters, but we helped them out with a couple walks,” he added.

Craig improved to 14 for 31 (.452) in his career with the bases loaded. He is batting an eye-popping .452 with runners in scoring position this year, a big reason why he leads St. Louis with 95 RBIs.

“No bigger or better at bat all season,” Matheny said. “He’s been so good in that situation.”

The crowd of 35,159 roared as Craig rounded the bases. The big first baseman then came out for a curtain call.

“I wasn’t thinking about hitting a home run, I just wanted to hit it hard and in play,” Craig said. “When guys are on, I just try and hit it hard somewhere and it usually works out.”

Craig’s drive helped the Cardinals rally from a four-run deficit, tying their largest comeback of the season. They also came from four down to beat Pittsburgh 6-5 in 12 innings on Aug. 15.

Bruce connected against Seth Maness, but that was it for Cincinnati, which lost for the third time in four games.

“We’re getting down to crunch time and every series is important,” Hoover said. “When you look back at the end of the season, one loss could be important.”

Lyons settled down after the rough start and was charged with one earned run in five innings. He struck out a career-high seven and walked two.

“The second inning didn’t go how I wanted it to,” Lyons said. “It was just about bouncing back and trying to keep the team in the game for as long as possible. I think I did that.”

Leake allowed five runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. The right-hander is 1-1 with an unseemly 5.20 ERA in his last six starts.

— Associated Press —

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was so impressed with Mike Minor that he referenced two of the best pitchers in the National League.

Minor bounced back from the shortest outing of his career with seven strong innings, leading Atlanta to a 5-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

”I felt like I was pounding the zone, hitting more spots,” Minor said.

Atlanta, which has the best record in the NL, salvaged the finale of the four-game set. Andrelton Simmons hit his 12th homer for the Braves, who closed out a 2-4 road trip.

Minor (13-5) gave up one run and six hits while pitching on seven days’ rest after allowing four runs in 1 2-3 innings against Washington on Aug. 17. The left-hander struck out two and walked one, playing a big role in the end of St. Louis’ four-game winning streak and prompting his manager to compare him to aces Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.

”He’s developing into a big-time deal,” Gonzalez said. ”The Wainwrights of the world, the Kershaws of the world, they stop losing streaks and extend winning streaks.

”He’s becoming one of those guys.”

Minor also beat the Cardinals 4-1 on July 26, starting the Braves on a 14-game winning streak.

”He was sharp today, he didn’t give us a lot of mistakes to handle,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”And he got out of any kind of jams that he got himself into.”

Minor, who also legged out an infield hit in the seventh, recorded his team-high 19th quality start. He leads the team with a career-high 13 wins, but he had little interest in any talk of being a stopper.

”I don’t look at myself as the ace of this team,” he said.

Simmons hit a solo drive in the seventh for his 12th homer, giving the Braves a 4-1 lead.

Craig Kimbrel came on with two out in the eighth and picked up his 41st save in 44 opportunities. It was his first four-out save of the season, a trend that may continue in October.

”We may have to do that come postseason,” Gonzalez said. ”It was perfect timing. He hasn’t pitched in three days, with a day off tomorrow, it made a lot of sense to push him and he came through.”

Kimbrel enjoyed the extra work. He also liked sitting the dugout for a change between the eighth and ninth innings.

”I found myself talking and joking around,” he said. ”Then I said, ‘Wait I’ve got three more outs to get.’ But I was able to get back out there and get in the zone.”

Atlanta jumped on Lance Lynn (13-8), scoring one in the first and two in the second. Lynn gave up four runs and nine hits over seven innings while dropping to 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA in his last four starts.

The Braves needed just six pitches to jump in front. Jordan Schafer led off the game with a triple and came in on a run-scoring single by Elliot Johnson, his first RBI as a member of the Braves.

Gerald Laird and Joey Terdoslavich, getting spot starts, each singled to start the second. Paul Janish followed with an RBI single. Schafer then pushed the lead to 3-0 with a double, marking the first time in his career he tripled and doubled in the same game.

The win helped Atlanta get back on track against the Cardinals. The Braves swept St. Louis in a three-game series July 26-28 in Atlanta.

”You don’t want to get swept especially by a team that’s a playoff team that you have the potential of seeing,” Schafer said. ”You don’t want them to have confidence if you face them in the playoffs.”

St. Louis infielder Matt Carpenter had two hits, pushing his NL-best total to 157. He doubled in the sixth and scored on a groundout by Matt Holliday, who has an RBI in his last five games.

Allen Craig had three of the Cardinals’ eight hits for his 44th multihit game of the season.

”We wanted the sweep, but it’s still a really good series to win three games out of four against a tough team,” Craig said.

The Braves won for the first time since outfielder Jason Heyward suffered a broken jaw on Wednesday in New York. Heyward, who was hit by a pitch from Jonathon Niese, will be out four to six weeks.

— Associated Press —

Long counts have kept Shelby Miller from pitching too deep into games the last few months. On Saturday, though, the rookie was happy to give the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen a bit of a break.

Miller worked seven innings of three-hit ball and Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran each homered as the Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves for the third straight time, 6-2.

”I thought that’s probably about as good as we’ve seen him in a long time,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”His stuff was electric and he was in the lower part of the zone.

”He was really locked in, hopefully that’s something he can maintain,” Matheny said.

Freddie Freeman homered for the NL East-leading Braves, who totaled five runs while dropping three in a row for the first time since July 3-5. Julio Teheran (10-7) allowed a season-worst five walks and was charged with four runs.

”I didn’t have my best stuff but I was fighting the whole game,” Teheran said. ”I knew it from the first inning, from when I was warming up that it was going to be a hard day for me.”

Miller (12-8) worked more than six innings for the first time in 13 starts since June 1. He struck out six without walking a batter while pitching with no more than a one-run cushion against a fellow 22-year-old right-hander. Center fielder Jon Jay made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Brian McCann of at least extra bases in the seventh.

”My main goal was to keep my focus the entire game and just attack the zone,” Miller said. ”That’s kind of what I’ve been lacking a little bit.

”I felt like we got in front on the counts and after that we didn’t slow down,” he added.

The Cardinals, who began the night a game back in the NL Central, go for a four-game sweep Sunday with Lance Lynn (13-7) opposing Mike Minor (12-5).

”They’re as good a ballclub as you’re going to face in the National League,” Carpenter said. ”For us to take these three games is huge.”

St. Louis totaled three runs while getting swept in a three-game series in Atlanta in late July.

”It’s a combination of tough pitching and we’re not swinging it really well,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. ”Sometimes you run into a hot team like they are right now. They ran into us at our place, we were pretty hot.”

Pinch-hitter Shane Robinson and Carpenter opened a three-run seventh with singles to chase Teheran and the Cardinals broke it open against reliever Dave Carpenter with a two-run double by Matt Holliday and an RBI single by Yadier Molina for a 5-1 lead

The Braves had three of their seven hits in the ninth, including pinch-hitter Gerald Laird’s RBI double off Seth Maness before Edward Mujica struck out Elliott Johnson with two on for his 34th save in 36 chances.

The first three hits of the game were home runs. Miller struck out the first two batters on seven pitches and the Braves’ first contact came when Freeman hammered a 1-2 pitch for his 16th homer.

Carpenter answered with his second career leadoff homer and 10th overall, also on a 1-2 count, in the bottom of the first. Beltran’s team-leading 23rd put the Cardinals ahead 2-1 in the third and he finished with three hits, two RBIs and his second base-running gaffe of the series.

Beltran settled for a single in the fifth after standing at the plate for several seconds and belatedly jogging to first on a liner down the third base line that caromed off the jut in the stands in shallow left. Two days earlier he missed third base and had to double back before scoring.

”I got jammed and I didn’t know where the ball went,” Beltran said. ”I heard the fans just clapping and I didn’t know what happened, then I saw the ball in left field and said I’ve got to run. Wouldn’t it be ugly to be thrown out at first base from left field?”

— Associated Press —