Motte blows lead in ninth, Cardinals fall to Diamondbacks

ST. LOUIS -- Paul Goldschmidt and Chris Young homered on consecutive pitches from Jason Motte with one out in the ninth inning to rally the Arizona Diamondbacks past the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Thursday night.

Motte (4-4) struck out Miguel Montero to lead off the ninth with St. Louis ahead 1-0 on Allen Craig's RBI single in the fifth. Goldschmidt, who hit a 456-foot homer in Wednesday's 5-2 loss, fouled off three full-count pitches then drove a pitch to center for his 18th home run of the season. Young sent the next pitch over the left-field wall for his 12th homer.

David Hernandez (2-2) pitched a perfect eighth, and J.J. Putz finished with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th consecutive save and 23rd in 27 chances overall.

The consecutive home runs ruined a strong outing by Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse.

Lohse scattered four hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings to lower his season ERA to 2.61. He struck out five and finished with 94 pitches.

Cardinals baserunner Kyle Lohse scores from second as Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero misplays the throw during the fifth inning Thursday in St. Louis. (TOM GANNAM ~ Associated Press)

Lohse allowed a two-out walk then a single in the seventh, which ended his night. Marc Rzepczynski came on to strike out Chris Johnson to end the threat.

Craig gave the Cardinals the lead in the fifth inning when he singled to left field to score Lohse with one out.

David Freese went 2 for 4, while Rafael Furcal also added two hits for St. Louis.