Cards' Kaminsky dominates in sixth win

Cardinals' No. 4 prospect Rob Kaminsky trusted his fastball and his changeup Tuesday, but more importantly, he trusted No. 8 prospect Carson Kelly to call each one of them.

"Carson called an awesome game," Kaminsky said. "For the most part, we were on the same page. He put the sign down, I trusted him, and it worked out for us, we got the win."

The southpaw and his catcher ended up allowing two hits over seven innings as Class A Advanced Palm Beach topped Daytona, 5-1.

Kaminsky (6-4) struck out four, walked two and induced 11 ground balls to win his third straight start for St. Louis' Florida State League affiliate.

"I was trusting my fastball and changeup and curveball, it was just one of those nights," Kaminsky said. "I threw a lot of pitches for strikes and my defense played great behind me, so everything panned out."

The lefty out of St. Joseph's High School in Montvale, New Jersey, allowed just one hit into the seventh, when Brian O'Grady delivered a two-out single. Kevin Herget gave up a run on two hits in the eighth before Ronnie Shaban recorded the final out for his second save.

"I was throwing three pitches for strikes," said Kaminsky. "We've been getting a lot of ground balls and the defense played great, so I'm just trying to feed them ground balls."

The Cardinals' first-round pick, in the 2013 Draft has not lost since June 5 while holding opponents to one earned run or fewer in each of his last six starts. Kaminsky held Jupiter to a pair of runs -- one earned -- over six innings in his last start on June 25, when he struck out a season-high eight.

The 20-year-old said he's continued to work on his two-seam fastball to induce ground balls, a plan he and Cardinals pitching coach Randy Niemann devised earlier this season. Kaminsky allowed six runs on eight hits over five innings to the same Daytona squad in his worst start of the year May 12, but he's been a different pitcher since. He said he wasn't thinking about that loss when he took the mound Tuesday.

"After a start like that, you try to take away some positives, but [today] I just wanted to trust in my stuff," he said. "It's the same game, I've just got to get the ground-ball strikes. Things have been working in my favor, so I'm just going to run with it."

Blake Drake hit a leadoff homer and Collin Radack added an RBI single in the third.

Kelly, the Cardinals' second-round pick in 2012, went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run. The catcher singled and scored in the fourth and plated the game's final run in the eighth on a grounder to first.

"The offense is coming around and putting runs on the board for us, so I'm just trying to keep the other team off the board," Kaminsky said.

Daytona starter Seth Barner (0-1) was charged with four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits and a pair of walks over six innings in his Florida State League debut. The Reds' 10th-round pick last year was 7-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 78 innings over 14 starts at Class A Dayton.