Nolan Arenado and Jordan Walker homered in the first inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 on Tuesday night.

Arenado finished with four hits and Tommy Edman also homered for the last-place Cardinals, who have won five of six.

Lawrence Butler hit his first major league homer for Oakland, which has lost five straight overall and its last nine on the road. The A’s (33-87) fell 54 games under .500 for the first time since ending the 1979 season at 54-108.

Dakota Hudson (4-0) recorded his third successive win, allowing two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.

Arenado hit a two-run shot in the first off Spenser Watkins (0-1), his team-high 25th, to make it 3-0. Three batters later, Walker hit his 11th homer.

Arenado became the tenth third baseman in major league history to record 25 home runs in eight or more seasons.

Arenado is the seventh St. Louis player to hit 25 or more homers in three successive seasons.

St. Louis has scored five or more runs in each of its last six games.

UP NEXT

St. Louis LHP Matthew Liberatore (2-4, 5.72 ERA) will face Oakland RHP Paul Blackburn (2-3, 4.52) as the Cardinals seek a three-game sweep on Wednesday.