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Record: 65-62, 3rd, 5 GB Quad City
St. Louis jumped out to a 7-0 lead with four runs in the bottom of the first inning and two in the third and another in the fourth before holding on for a 7-5 win over Cedar Rapids at Busch Stadium (1997).
The victory extended St. Louis' win streak to eight games.
Alan Dondero set the early tone with a home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning against Golden Grapplers starter Madison Bumgarner.
The next four batters would also reach base, Romy Gonzalez adding a two-run double in the process.
Bo Bichette plated the inning's fourth run with a sacrifice fly.
In the fourth inning, Rhys Hoskins coaxed a lead-off walk from Bumgarner before being eliminated when Andrew Benintendi hit into a fielder's choice.
Romy Gonzalez followed with a single, and Benintendi scored on a Jared Thomas double which led to Bumgarner's exit.
Reliever Yeankarlos Lleras got Bo Bichette to ground out, but it didn't prevent Gonzalez from scoring.
St. Louis added another run in the fourth.
Benintendi reached on a two-out single off Lleras before a walk to Gonzalez and Jared Thomas reaching on an error by second baseman Terrin Vavra loaded the bases.
Benintendi then scored on a wild pitch by Lleras.
Cedar Rapids would make it a game.
It started with a two-run homer from Vavra off Walkers starting pitcher Alex Faedo in the fifth.
Sam Cohen then smacked a three-run homer off Faedo in the seventh, slicing the deficit to 7-5.
But the Walkers' bullpen was lock down from there to close out the win.
Due to the two homers, Faedo (8-9) would allow five runs on seven hits in his 6.1 innings.
John Curitss closed out the seventh inning.
Nick Lodolo worked a scoreless eighth inning and recorded the first two outs in the ninth.
Phil Maton struck out Jose Leyva to end it for his second save.