The rally came too late for Lance Lynn to get another win. Just in time, though, for the St. Louis Cardinals to keep the scuffling Kansas City Royals down.

Pinch-hitter Daniel Descalso hit a two-run single with the bases loaded to snap a tie in a four-run eighth and the Cardinals rallied for a 5-3 win Wednesday night, the Royals’ season-high eighth straight loss.

”It was a good comeback, we haven’t had to do that a lot this year,” Descalso said. ”Of course, I wanted to be in that spot.

”You’ve got to like that spot.”

Luis Mendoza got his first career hit and RBI and held the Cardinals to a run in 5 2-3 innings before the bullpen failed for the Royals. They dropped the first two games of the interleague series by a combined 10-4 score and have totaled 11 runs the last six games.

”We felt like we had it set up,” manager Ned Yost said. ”We just needed to execute. We battled hard to get the three runs.”

Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran homered for the second straight night. The Cardinals have won seven of eight overall, lead the majors with a 35-17 record, and go for a sweep Thursday with touted rookie Michael Wacha making his major league debut.

”It was great, no doubt about that,” Beltran said. ”We took advantage of their bullpen and we were able to come out big.”

Randy Choate (1-0) got the last out in the eighth and Edward Mujica finished for his 17th save in 17 chances, retiring the side in order for the second straight game.

Lynn missed a chance to start out 8-1 for the second straight season, allowing two runs in seven innings but getting hurt most by Mendoza’s hit.

Mendoza joked his last hit was ”when I was 10 years old, probably.”

”I know he is going to throw a strike, just hit the ball,” the pitcher added.

Beltran hit his 12th homer off Aaron Crow (0-1) to open the eighth and David Freese tied it with a one-out RBI single. Crow intentionally walked Jon Jay to load the bases, then got Pete Kozma on a called third strike before Descalso bounced one up the middle for his first pinch-hit RBIs of the season.

The Cardinals have won six in a row in the series. They’d been 0-12 when trailing after seven innings before getting to Crow, who allowed five hits and four runs while getting just two outs and said Beltran homered on a ”real bad pitch.”

”The worst I’ve ever pitched in my career by far,” Crow said. ”I feel like I let everyone in this clubhouse down tonight.”

Royals rookie David Lough had two hits for a two-game total of six and threw out a runner at the plate. Alex Gordon had three hits and Lorenzo Cain and George Kottaras had an RBI apiece.

The Busch Stadium field showed little signs of wear six days after the mound was removed and the infield dirt covered with sod for an exhibition soccer match between English Premier League rivals Chelsea and Manchester City that drew a standing room crowd.

Mendoza retired the side in order in the first, a welcome change for the Royals after Molina and Beltran opened with two-run homers the first two games.

Lough tripled to start the fifth and was still there with two outs before Mendoza, who’d been 0 for 6 with five strikeouts for his career, singled to right to put the Royals up 2-0. Mendoza passed on what would have been a double for most players, taking his time getting to first and then speeding up briefly before slamming on the brakes.

The Royals traveled Interstate 70 by bus for the second half of the interleague series after difficulties with the team flight.

Lough earned his second outfield assist, throwing out Allen Craig trying to score from second and tie it at 1 in the fourth on a single by Yadier Molina.

— Associated Press —

Tyler Lyons couldn’t seem to find any pitch that was working in the first inning Tuesday night.

The next six? Just about everything was working.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ rookie only allowed two hits against the Kansas City Royals’ scuffling offense, and the only run in the first inning.

The result was a 4-1 win that kept Lyons perfect in his week-old big league career, and the Cardinals rolling as they head for home.

”In the first inning, I was a little erratic with everything,” he said. ”Just trying to control that a little bit and get in the groove and figure out what was working and what wasn’t.

“Eventually, everything started working.”

By that point, Carlos Beltran had already belted a two-run homer to give Lyons the lead. Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday added solo shots in the sixth inning, and the Cardinals improved to a major league-best 20-9 on the road before heading home for two against KC at Busch Stadium.

The only two hits that Lyons (2-0) allowed were to Billy Butler – an RBI double in the first inning and a bloop single in the seventh, which ended a streak of 17 straight betters set aside.

”He was very good, and pitched different today. He had a little trouble at first finding his fastball, but he had his breaking ball going today and that kept them off balance,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”He made a good adjustment and found his fastball later.”

Trevor Rosenthal pitched the eighth inning in a driving rain for St. Louis, and Edward Mujica breezed through a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season.

”Just the life, the energy – they’re enjoying showing up every day to play the game,” Matheny said, ”and you can tell they’re really lifting each other up.”

Things couldn’t be more different in the opposing clubhouse.

Kansas City has lost seven straight and 18 of its past 22, erasing a 17-10 start that had a beleaguered fan base finally starting to believe in something. The Royals’ 10 consecutive losses at Kauffman Stadium matches the franchise record set just last season.

”What are you asking me to do? Take my belt off and spank them? Yell at them, scream at them? What do you want?” Royals manager Ned Yost asked. ”Do we need to make changes? This can’t continue. Somewhere down the road, we’re going to have to make some changes.”

Their offense has been the biggest culprit: It’s produced eight runs total in the Royals’ past five games, and hasn’t scored more than four in a game since May 21 at Houston.

While the Cardinals had three homers Tuesday night, the Royals have that many in 14 games.

”If pressure turns into panic, you have a problem,” general manager Dayton Moore said prior to the game. ”Right now, we’ve just got to deal with the pressure in a way that is professional and with the right mindset and just get through it.”

St. Louis got off to a carbon-copy start of the previous night, when Yadier Molina hit a two-run homer in the first inning from the No. 2 spot in the lineup. This time, it was Beltran who went deep off Santana to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead after just seven pitches.

It was the first time the Cardinals got two-run shots from the No. 2 spot in the first inning in back-to-back games since 1998, when Ray Lankford hit both of them, according to STATS LLC. The Royals haven’t accomplished the same feat since Amos Otis went deep in consecutive games in 1976.

The Royals got one run back right away when Alex Gordon drew a leadoff walk – the Royals began the night with the third-fewest walks in the majors – and Butler drove him in with a double to left.

But that was the hardest-hit ball of the night by Kansas City, which set a season low for hits in a game. Lyons retired 17 in a row before Butler blooped his single down the right-field line with one out in the seventh inning, and then he left the Royals’ DH stranded on first base.

”I mean, I knew there had to be a few,” Lyons said of his streak of retired batters. ”I wasn’t sure how many there were, but I like not having to pitch out of the stretch, so that was good.”

Other than the home runs, Santana was nearly as effectively on the mound.

The Royals’ right-hander went 14 consecutive batters without allowing anybody on base at one point, and he was aided by double plays in the first and seventh innings to limit the damage.

Not even the best defense could keep the ball in the park, though. Santana allowed four homers to the Angels his last time out, and has allowed seven in his past two starts.

”That happens. I’m not trying to be perfect, just trying to make my pitch. If I miss, that’s how it is,” Santana said. ”I have to change the page and get them next time.”

— Associated Press —

Yadier Molina looked perfectly comfortable in the No. 2 spot in the lineup.

Batting second for only the third time in his career, Molina homered and drove in four runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the slumping Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Monday.

Molina hit a two-run homer in the first inning and doubled home a run in the third before his sacrifice fly in the fourth scored Pete Kozma.

”Yadier is pretty flexible,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”We like him wherever he hits. Today he did a nice job hitting in the second position.”

Molina had batted fifth 40 times and sixth seven times this year.

”It doesn’t matter for me,” he said. ”I’ve got the same approach: I’m going to be aggressive.”

While the Cardinals own the best road record in the majors at 19-9, the Royals dropped their ninth straight home game – one shy of the franchise record set last year.

”We’re playing good,” Molina said. ”We’ve got some good offense. Right now, we’re seeing the ball pretty good. We’re finding some holes. We’re showing the people we’ve got a pretty good team. Hopefully we can continue to do that for the rest of the season.”

The anticipated pitchers’ duel between Adam Wainwright and James Shields failed to materialize.

Wainwright (7-3) struck out five and walked none in eight innings for the win. He allowed 12 hits, his most since Sept. 14, 2010, against the Chicago Cubs. The right-hander gave up 12 hits over 22 1-3 innings in his previous three starts.

”Early on, they got some hits off some bad pitches and I felt like as the game went on they put some really good at-bats against me and hit some good pitches as well,” Wainwright said. ”I broke several of their bats and they found holes. The got some good hits as well on good pitches. I think as a pitcher no matter what happens on the other side you just have to keep battling and keep making pitches and eventually if you keep making pitches things will work out.”

Edward Mujica gave up a hit in the ninth but earned his 15th save in as many opportunities.

Shields (2-6) yielded nine hits and season highs of six runs and five walks over six innings while losing his fourth straight start.

”I wasn’t commanding my fastball and I was getting behind in the count and then I started walking guys,” Shields said. ”We’ve just got to gut it out. We’ve got great effort in here.”

After rain delayed the start for 62 minutes, the Cardinals opened the game with Matt Carpenter’s single and Molina’s third home run.

It was the first time Molina had faced Shields.

”Shields is a good pitcher,” Molina said. ”My brother (caught) him in Tampa. I watched him a bunch of times on TV. I’ve got a pretty good idea what he brings to the table. He made a couple of mistakes in the middle and I took advantage.”

Royals rookie David Lough, who had a career-high four hits, led off the first with a double and scored on Alex Gordon’s single.

Molina’s double in the third scored Daniel Descalso. Molina scored on Allen Craig’s single.

The Royals answered with two runs in the bottom half. Gordon scored on a wild pitch and Eric Hosmer contributed an RBI single.

The Cardinals expanded their lead in the sixth when Carpenter’s double scored Descalso, who had three hits and a walk.

”We showed some life,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”We had Wainwright on the ropes, but we couldn’t get the big hit.”

— Associated Press —