Hudson drives in two, wins 15th as Cardinals top Giants

Pitcher Dakota Hudson won his fifth consecutive start and drove home two runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the visiting San Francisco Giants 10-0 Thursday afternoon. The Cardinals won their fifth consecutive series to extend their second-half surge. They have won six of their past eight games and 12 of their past 15.

Since falling below .500 at 44-45 on July 12, the Cardinals have posted a 35-16 record while climbing into the National League Central lead. The fading Giants lost for the eight time in their past 10 games.

Hudson (15-6) held the Giants scoreless on one hit through six innings. He is 9-2 with one no-decision in his past dozen starts. Genesis Cabera pitched the final three innings for the Cardinals to earn his first career save.

Hudson helped his own cause with a two-run single in the third inning as the Cardinals scored five times to blow the game open. Those were the first RBIs of his big league career. Paul DeJong hit a two-run homer, his 26th of the season -- the most ever by a Cardinals shortstop -- in the first inning to stake the Cardinals to a 3-0 lead. Rangel Ravelo hit his first big league homer, a two-run shot in the eighth inning.

Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Carpenter each added two hits and an RBI to the winning attack. Yadier Molina extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI single. That was Molina's 1,944th hit as a Cardinal, tying Ozzie Smith for seventh place on the franchise's all-time list.

Molina's appearance at catcher tied him with Jim Sundberg (1,927 games) for the ninth-most in major league history. Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb (1-1) didn't survive the third inning. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings.

After that, both managers treated the matinee like a spring training game by substituting freely. The Giants deployed 20 players with their expanded September roster and the Cardinals used 15 players. On the injury front, X-rays came up negative on the bruised wrist suffered by Giants reliever Tony Watson on Wednesday night.