Paul DeJong slugged his first career grand slam, helping Dakota Hudson to his first win of the season as the St. Louis Cardinals held on to beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-5 on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series.

The Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning on Kolten Wong’s single and walks by Paul Goldschmidt and Brad Miller. DeJong capitalized, sending Anthony DeSclafani’s full-count pitch over the center field fence for his second homer of the season.

Hudson (1-3) finished with a season-high seven strikeouts and no walks. He allowed four hits and two runs, one earned. With the help of a double play, he faced the minimum 13 batters, starting from the last out of the first through the fifth.

Goldschmidt collected three hits and DeJong, Wong and Tommy Edman each had two hits for the Cardinals, who won their second straight after dropping four in a row.

Eugenio Suarez drove in four runs for Cincinnati, three on a ninth-inning home run, his eighth of the season. The Reds have lost three of four after winning three straight.

Giovanny Gallegos got two outs for his second save.

UP NEXT
Cardinals:. LHP Kwang Hyun Kim (1-0) limited the Reds to three hits over six innings in his first career start during St. Louis’s 3-0 win on August 22.
Reds: RHP Sonny Gray (5-1) has a combined 1.59 ERA in 22-2/3 innings over four career starts against St. Louis. Game time is 5:40 in Cincinnati. Game time is 5:40 central.