Phoenix, AZ – Cliff Pennington's RBI single in the 16th inning lifted the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 10-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the rubber match of their season-opening series at Chase Field.
Jason Kubel worked a leadoff walk off Fernando Salas (0-1) and scampered to second on a sacrifice bunt by pinch-hitter and Opening Day starter Ian Kennedy. Pennington came up next and rolled a base hit back up the middle to bring home Kubel.
Josh Collmenter (1-0) surrendered a run on four hits and two walks to pick up the win.
Paul Goldschmidt, Martin Prado and Gerardo Parra all had three hits with a home run for Arizona, with the latter falling just a double shy of the cycle.
Yadier Molina homered and drove in three runs, while Daniel Descalso went 4- for-7 with two runs scored and two RBI for the Cardinals.
St. Louis' Lance Lynn lasted just four-plus innings after yielding four runs on six hits and three walks.
Brandon McCarthy made his first meaningful appearance since taking a line drive to the face last September. The scary incident caused an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and a skull fracture, but McCarthy made a full recovery and signed with Arizona as a free agent in December. His debut in the desert was forgettable, however, as he surrendered six runs on nine hits over five-plus innings.
Molina broke a 7-7 tie with a leadoff homer off Brad Ziegler in the seventh, but the Diamondbacks kept the seesaw battle going by tying it in the eighth.
Parra was the catalyst, as he reached on a one-out single, moved to second on Prado's base hit and raced around on Aaron Hill's single to left. Trevor Rosenthal gave up the tying run, but retired Miguel Montero and Goldschmidt to keep things even.
Collmenter, Arizona's sixth arm out of the bullpen, walked Molina with one way in the 12th, then gave up consecutive singles, with Kozma's frozen- rope liner to left field scoring Molina without a play at the plate.
Mitchell Boggs couldn't close out the win, as he gave up a leadoff single to Pennington before plunking Eric Chavez on the elbow. Parra sacrificed both runners up a base, and Pennington scored on Prado's sac fly to right.
Each team stranded a runner on second in the 14th.
Earlier, the Cardinals batted around in the third and got a little help when Pennington fielded Jon Jay's chopper up the middle and threw the ball away, allowing Descalso to score.
McCarthy hit Holliday with two away to put runners on first and second, and Allen Craig doubled past a diving Prado down the third-base line to bring in another run. Molina followed with a two-run base hit up the middle for a 4-1 lead.
Arizona countered with a four-spot in the fifth. Parra, who recorded his first career leadoff homer with an opposite-field shot four innings prior, legged out a triple off the center-field wall, then scored on a wild pitch to start things off.
A single by Prado and double by Hill chased Lynn in favor of Randy Choate, and Prado scored on Montero's sacrifice fly before Choate was quickly pulled. Joe Kelly entered from the bullpen, and his first pitch was redirected into the left-field seats by Goldschmidt.
Arizona's 5-4 lead didn't last long, and neither did McCarthy, who was yanked with two on and no outs in the sixth. Descalso greeted Tony Sipp with a two- run double and later scored on Holliday's single off Ziegler.
Kelly stayed in the game for St. Louis and served up another two-run shot, this time to Prado after Chavez led off the sixth with a single.
Game Notes
Arizona had not won a series against the Cardinals since taking two of three from them on June 11-13, 2010 ... Lynn is coming off a team-high 18-win campaign ... McCarthy was making his 100th career start and first as a National Leaguer after stints with the White Sox, Rangers and Athletics ... The Diamondbacks play their next three games in Milwaukee, while St. Louis heads to San Francisco for a three-game set against the Giants.
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