OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Lance Lynn earned his first win for the St. Louis Cardinals in seven years, a 3-2 victory over the Athletics on Tuesday night before a season-low crowd of 3,296 at the Oakland Coliseum.
Lynn (1-0) allowed two runs — one earned — and five hits in seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.18 in four starts. The 36-year-old right-hander went 72-47 for the Cardinals from 2011-17. After pitching for five other teams, he returned to St. Louis during the offseason for an $11 million, one-year contract.
“From the get-go, they weren’t going to let me try to get to two strikes or get them in a strikeout situation,” Lynn said. “So then you just mix and match early and let them have some weak contact. We had some great plays behind me. All in all, that’s a good recipe.”
JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley each got three straight outs, with Helsley earning his major league-leading seventh save in eight chances.
St. Louis won its second straight over the A’s and got back to .500 at 9-9.
Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker hit consecutive sacrifice flies off Dany Jiménez (1-1) as the Cardinals overcame a 2-1 deficit in the sixth. Nolan Arenado led off with a single, Jiménez issued back-to-back walks and center fielder JJ Bleday heaved the ball home with no chance for a play on Winn’s fly, allowing the other two runners to advance.
Oakland fell to 3-9 at home and 7-11 overall. The team’s average home attendance has been 5,968 through 12 games. The A’s have announced plans to move to Sacramento from 2025-27 and Las Vegas after that.
Kyle McCann hit an RBI single in the second and hit his first major league homer, a fifth-inning drive off Lynn that left McCann’s bat at 106.3 mph and traveled 385 feet to right-center.
“Dream come true,” McCann said. “As soon as I hit it, I actually looked up at the scoreboard to see how hard I hit it, and once I saw that I got it pretty well, I was just praying it went out. And then as soon as it did, obviously I was fired up running around the bases. It was a great moment.”
Brendan Donovan had a run-scoring grounder in the third off JP Sears, who allowed two hits in five innings.
Willson Contreras singled in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He has reached base safely in 22 straight games dating to last year.
MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR HERZOG
Whitey Herzog was honored with a moment of silence before the game. The former Cardinals manager died Monday at the age of 92. Herzog played for the Kansas City A’s from 1958-60.
UP NEXT
Cardinals LHP Steven Matz (1-0, 1.80 ERA) starts Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against Athletics RHP Paul Blackburn (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who has yet to allow a run in 19 1/3 innings this season.
