JUPITER, Fla. -- With catcher Yadier Molina back, Chris Carpenter had his best outing of the spring.
Molina returned from the World Baseball Classic and caught six scoreless innings from Carpenter in the St. Louis Cardinals' 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
"Carp makes it look easy," said Molina, who went 1-for-3. "Anytime you catch a pitcher like Carp, it's easy."
Making his fourth start, Carpenter, who missed most of the last two seasons with arm and shoulder trouble, turned in the Cardinals' longest outing so far. He has thrown 14 scoreless innings this spring.
Joe Mather and Kahlil Greene each made diving plays and the Cardinals turned two double plays behind Carpenter, who got 17 of his 18 by groundball or strikeout.
"As the game went on I started feeling better, which is nice," said Carpenter, who retired the final eight batters he faced. "I was able to get my delivery together and start making quality pitches."
Adam Eaton's bid to join the Orioles' rotation ended better than it started. Eaton issued a four-pitch walk to Skip Schumaker to start the first inning than gave up a single to Chris Duncan.
Schumaker scored on Ty Wigginton's errant throw attempting to double-up Albert Pujols. Pujols scored on Ryan Ludwick's single.
"It took me a little bit to get comfortable again," Eaton said. "After that I settled down and made some good pitches, but luck wasn't on my side and a couple balls found a hole."
Eaton, who was released by Philadelphia earlier this spring, only allowed one baserunner after the first inning and faced the minimum nine batters in his final three innings.
"I thought he was better," said Baltimore manager Dave Trembley, comparing Wednesday's start to Eaton's first outing. "His changeup was better. His fastball for the most part, with the exception of the first hitter, was down."
The Cardinals pushed their lead to 3-0 in the sixth when Pujols' liner to left one-hopped the wall, easily scoring Schumaker from second.
Baltimore scored a run in the seventh on Wigginton's groundout and another in the ninth on Luis Montanez's double.
