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ST. LOUIS -- 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 havent had to do that a lot this year," Descalso said. "Of course, I wanted to be in that spot. "Youve 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 totalled 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 Mendozas 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. Theyd 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 Ive 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, whod 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 travelled 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. Notes: Mike Moustakas returned for the Royals after missing three games with quad tightness and had two hits. ... Gordon entered with an AL-leading .394 road batting average and is among the leaders with multihit games. .. Beltran saved at least one run in the seventh with a sliding catch on a drive near the RF line by Cain. ... Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter made an outstanding play in the second, diving to his right to snare a liner by Chris Getz, the only hard-hit ball from the Royals the first time through the order.Chicago White Sox Gear .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. Chicago White Sox Pro Shop . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. https://www.cheapwhitesox.com/ . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. Cheap White Sox Jerseys . Its the second straight game Bell has scored in extra time for Kelowna, which beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-5 on Friday, and he now has four game-winning goals on the season. Custom Chicago White Sox Jerseys .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training.NEW YORK -- The U.S. Open closed its new, $150 million retractable roof atop Arthur Ashe Stadium during a match for the first time Wednesday night.The shutting of the cover resulted in a suspension of play of less than 7 1/2 minutes at 3-all in the second set of Rafael Nadals 6-0, 7-5, 6-1 victory against Andreas Seppi in the second round.I feel that the conditions are pretty similar when the roof is closed or open, Nadal said afterward.The most noticeable difference was the amount of ambient noise -- chatter from spectators, mainly -- that could be heard during points.U.S. Tennis Association Executive Director Gordon Smith said tournament organizers will look into that.This is New York. And yes, theres crowd noise. And yes, we want the crowds to come, we want them to be excited. We want them to cheer. And we think that over time the fans will adjust and the players will adjust, he said. Its obvious theres going to be more noise in a trapped environment than in an open environment.Even before the roof was closed, chair umpire Cedric Mourier repeatedly implored spectators to keep quiet during points. Both Nadal and Seppi were surprised by just how many interruptions there were from fans, either moving around in the stands or simply being loud.The people, I think, are used to going to baseball (games) and keep talking, Seppi said. There really was a lot of noise.After dealing with rain delays and postponed finals for years, the USTA finally built a sliding roof over its main stadium. It was available for this years tournament, which started Monday, but the first two days were dry.It ttook well over 10 years to come up with a solution to do this that was affordable, was architecturally imaginative, that was cost-effective, that was efficient.dddddddddddd But we did it, Smith said. To see it work flawlessly was really incredible.A light rain began to fall while Nadal and Seppi were playing. Tournament referee Brian Earley was monitoring the weather from off to the side of the playing surface and eventually walked over to Mourier and the two players to let them know he wanted to shut the roof.This might take very few minutes, Mourier announced to the spectators. Thank you very much for your patience.Some fans applauded or cheered. Others pulled out their cellphones to shoot photos of the structure as it moved. Even Nadal took a glance overhead to sneak a peek.The USTA has said that, based on pre-tournament testing, the expectation is there will be little difference in playing conditions whether the roof is open or closed.The only use of the roof until Nadals match came when it was shut at the start of the tournaments opening ceremony Monday night, then opened while Phil Collins sang In the Air Tonight.The U.S. Open mens final was postponed in five consecutive years because of wet weather from 2008-12.For a good show, for the comfort of the fans and for the fans in general (watching on) television, Nadal said about the new roof, its just an unbelievable improvement.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '