ST. LOUIS — Call it a rainy bump in the road for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Left fielder Melky Cabrera’s solo homer in the top of the sixth inning snapped a tie as the Chicago White Sox became the first visiting team to sweep a series in Busch Stadium this year with a 7-1 decision in a thrice-delayed game which started late Wednesday night and ended early Thursday morning.
Cabrera’s third homer of the year helped make a winner of starter Jose Quintana (4-7), who gave up six hits and a run over six innings with no walks and eight strikeouts.
Catcher Tyler Flowers belted a two-run homer to key a five-run ninth, his second in as many nights. First baseman Jose Abreu added an RBI single, while Cabrera drove in a second run with a groundout and an error enabled the final run to score.
Chicago upped its record to 34-42 and finished its eight-game road trip at 4-4.
Starter John Lackey (6-5) pitched seven innings for St. Louis (51-26), allowing seven hits and two runs while walking two and whiffing six. The Cardinals fell to 29-9 at home and lost consecutive games at home for just the second time this year.
Rain dominated the first half of the game. It delayed the start for 1:49, then held things up for 14 minutes while St. Louis batted in the bottom of the first and stopped the proceedings for 16 minutes before the bottom of the second.
Between delays, the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the first as shortstop Jhonny Peralta doubled down the left-field line to score second baseman Kolten Wong. Shortstop Alexei Ramirez made a strong relay throw home, but Wong’s slide to the outside of home plate beat the tag.
Chicago tied it in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by center fielder Adam Eaton that scored Flowers, who led off with a single and moved to second on a groundout.
NOTES: St. Louis LHP Jaime Garcia (groin cramp) won’t be able to start Thursday night’s game against San Diego, although manager Mike Matheny is hoping Garcia can take a turn next week against the Chicago Cubs and avoid a DL stint. … Chicago activated LHP Dan Jennings (neck) from a rehab stint, optioning RHP Junior Guerra to Triple-A Charlotte to make room. … The Cardinals probably will call up LHP Tim Cooney from Triple-A Memphis to start Thursday night. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said before Wednesday night’s game that the start would be made by a pitcher in Memphis. Cooney was pulled from his Saturday start after two innings.
