Cards' Lynn overpowers Reds with 10 strikeouts in 5-1 victory

~ The Cardinals evened the series with a 5-1 victory

ST. LOUIS -- Mitchell Boggs watched TV with his wife and played with the dog, anything to get his mind off an inept outing in the St. Louis Cardinals' home opener. It can't be understated how happy the right-hander was to get right back on the mound.

A day after the stand-in closer was the goat of the Reds' nine-run ninth inning, Boggs retired Cincinnati in order to close out a 5-1 victory Tuesday night.

"Anybody who's gone through it knows how important it is to get back out there quick," Boggs said. "It was a big outing for me, I'm not going to dance around it. I'm not going to act like I didn't care."

Cardinals rookie Trevor Rosenthal also had a strong outing, allowing a hit in the eighth one night after giving up the tying run.

"I know Mitchell was especially eager to get back on the mound, and I think it worked out well," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "He and Trevor both threw the ball exceptionally well."

Lance Lynn struck out 10 in six sharp innings and rookie Matt Adams connected for his first career pinch-hit homer off a slow curveball from Bronson Arroyo.

"He was throwing the majority off-speed the whole game and with the tying run at third I had a pretty good idea I was going to get an off-speed pitch sometime during that at-bat," Adams said. "You don't want to roll over it and not get the job done."

Arroyo (1-1) retired his first 15 batters. The Cardinals broke through in the sixth, with Adams hitting a two-run homer and Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran also driving in runs.

Brandon Phillips had a sacrifice fly and Shin-Soo Choo had two hits for Cincinnati. The Reds were held to five hits, ending a run of four consecutive games with double-figure hit totals. Choo has four straight two-hit games.

Lynn (1-0) retired the first 10 batters with seven strikeouts before the Reds scratched out a run in the fourth on consecutive one-hit singles from Zack Cozart and Joey Votto and Phillips' sacrifice fly. Left fielder Matt Holliday made a sliding catch on the warning track in left-center to limit the damage to a run.

"It was a great play," Matheny said. "He covered as much ground as I've probably ever seen him cover. That really could have turned ugly for us."

Lynn, who gave up four runs in four innings in his first start at Arizona, said the difference was simple: "Less walks, more strikes, less barrels, less hits."

Arroyo needed just 63 pitches to get through five, keeping the Cardinals guessing with his assortment of off-speed pitches. Right fielder Jay Bruce's sliding catch robbed Yadier Molina of a hit to end the fifth, but Arroyo allowed hits to four of the first five batters in the sixth.

Daniel Descalso doubled on an 0-1 pitch to open the inning, making him 8 for 19 against Arroyo, and advanced on a groundout before Adams' shot over the wall in right-center.