ST. LOUIS (AP) — 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.

Paul Goldschmidt and Andrew Knizner also drove in runs for the Cardinals.

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.

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

Butler, in his 18th career at-bat, sent a long drive over the wall in right in the seventh inning.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics: RHP Angel Felipe was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain. He allowed three runs on three hits to St. Louis while recording one out in Monday night's 7-5 loss.

Cardinals: INF Nolan Gorman missed his second successive game with lower back tightness. C Willson Contreras sat out with hip tightness suffered while running the bases in the third inning Monday night.

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.

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