Cardinals Rough Up Mets, Cubs Down Padres

The past two games at Citi Field, the St. Louis Cardinals have shown exactly why they own the best record in baseball. Matt Adams hit a long three-run homer, Jason Heyward also connected and the Cardinals enjoyed their second consecutive offensive outburst, roughing up Bartolo Colon in a 9-0 rout of the New York Mets on Wednesday night.

"These are the fun ones. The ones where every inning it seems like we're going out there and putting up a crooked number," Ada.m.s said.

Matt Holliday and Kolten Wong both had three hits to back Carlos Martinez (4-2), who pitched 6 1/3 innings of four-hit ball. Following a 10-2 victory Tuesday night, St. Louis improved the top mark in the majors to 27-13.

"Just goes to show what kind of tea.m. we have when we're clicking on all cylinders," Wong said.

Two relievers finished a four-hitter for the Cardinals, who have outhit New York 29-9 over the last two ga.m.es.

Cubs 3, Padres 2

Left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada left a lasting impression with the San Diego Padres even though he didn't last long enough to get the decision. Wada struck out nine in 4 2/3 innings in his season debut and scored the tying run, and Kris Bryant drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 3-2 victory against the Padres on Wednesday night.

Wada opened the season on the disabled list with a left groin strain and made six rehab starts. He struck out seven of the first nine Padres batters.

"He was outstanding," manager Joe Maddon said. "He had great stuff. He had nine punchouts in 4 2-3, and I'm more about the Cubs winning as opposed to any particular pitcher winning. It's a great ga.m.e for him to build off of. Very good command, nice composure, as much as you could expect from his first outing."

His only mistake was allowing a two-run homer to Justin Upton to straightaway center field to give the Padres a 2-1 lead with two outs in the fourth. It was his tea.m.-leading 11th, and Derek Norris was aboard on a one-out single.

Indians 4, White Sox 3

Cleveland manager Terry Francona was happy with the win. He was especially pleased with how the Indians earned the victory. Shaun Marcum won his first start in almost two years, Michael Brantley had a two-run double in the seventh inning, and Cleveland beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Recalled earlier Wednesday from Triple-A Columbus, Marcum went 6 2/3 innings and gave up solo home runs to Ada.m. Eaton and Conor Gillaspie but struck out six for the Indians, who have won four of six.

Marcum (1-0) hadn't started a ga.m.e in the major leagues since July 6, 2013, for the New York Mets. He was later diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which involves nerves near the neck and caused tingling and numbness in Marcum's right hand, eventually leading to shoulder surgery.

The win was his first since June 26, 2013, against Chicago and was the culmination of the recovery for Marcum, who had made one appearance in relief this season, throwing five innings and allowing one run against Detroit on April 12.

Wednesday, May 20 Scoreboard

Houston 6, Oakland 1

Texas 2, Boston 1

Seattle 4, Baltimore 2

Washington 3, New York Yankees 2

Minnesota 4, Pittsburgh 3

Los Angeles Angels 4, Toronto 3

Detroit 5, Milwaukee 2

Atlanta 2, Tampa Bay 1

St. Louis 9, New York Mets 0

Arizona 6, Mia.m.i 1

Cleveland 4, Chicago White Sox 3

Kansas City 7, Cincinnati 1

Philadelphia 4, Colorado 2

Chicago Cubs 3, San Diego 2

San Francisco 4, Los Angeles Dodgers 0

Thursday, May 21 Schedule (All Times Central)

Arizona at Miami, 11:10 a.m.

Seattle at Baltimore, 11:35 a.m.

Houston at Detroit, 12:08 p.m.

St. Louis at New York, 12:10 p.m.

Philadelphia at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.

Los Angeles at San Francisco 2:45 p.m.

Los Angeles at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Texas at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at Atlanta, 6:10 p.m.

Oakland at Tampa Bay 6:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Chicago, 7:10 p.m.

Chicago at San Diego, 8:10 p.m.