Jack Flaherty dazzled in another dominant performance, Marcell Ozuna homered and the Cardinals - with a fluky foul ball-turned-base hit - beat the San Francisco Giants 1-0 Tuesday night.
Flaherty (9-7) carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and cruised with eight strikeouts and a walk. The 23-year-old right-hander threw a career-high 113 pitches, 84 for strikes, and lowered his ERA to 0.90 over his past 11 starts dating to July 7.
Mike Yastrzemski had San Francisco's only two hits, the first a soft line drive with two outs in the sixth, and the second a single off closer Carlos Martinez in the ninth.
St. Louis only had five hits, including one by Paul DeJong that looked like a trick pool shot. DeJong hit a ball that rolled about 10 feet foul of the first base line before spinning all the way back into fair territory roughly 3/4 of the way to the bag. DeJong raced to first to load the bases with two outs in the first.
San Francisco right-hander Dereck Rodriguez pitched out of the inning and was nearly as good as Flaherty. Rodriguez (5-8) struck out seven over seven innings, and St. Louis' only damage came on Ozuna's shot in the sixth.
St. Louis has won 20 of its last 25 games. The Cardinals are an NL-best 34-16 since the All-Star break and entered the game leading the NL Central by three games.
