Adam Wainwright allowed just two hits in five innings as the visiting St. Louis Cardinals returned to action with a 5-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday.

Because of an outbreak of the coronavirus, this was the Cardinals' first game in 17 days. They played their first game since July 29 with 10 players on the COVID-19 list, including catcher Yadier Molina and shortstop Paul DeJong.

Wainwright (2-0) earned his 164th victory, moving past Bob Forsch for third in franchise history. Giovanny Gallegos and John Gant followed with one scoreless inning each to close out the seven-inning game.

Dexter Fowler drove home two runs and scored another to pace the Cardinals' offense.

Losing pitcher Lucas Giolito (1-2) allowed all five runs, four of them earned, in five innings.

The Cardinals exploited Giolito's early wildness to take an immediate 4-0 lead.

Kolten Wong led off the game by battling for an eight-pitch walk. After Tommy Edman hit a single to left and Paul Goldschmidt struck out, Giolito hit Tyler O'Neill and Matt Carpenter with back-to-back pitches to force home a run.

Dylan Carlson struck out in his first big-league at bat, but Fowler hit a two-run bloop single into center field and Andrew Knizner lined an RBI single into right.

Giolito finally escaped the 34-pitch inning when Fowler was thrown out trying to score from second on Harrison Bader's infield single to shortstop.

The White Sox cut the lead to 4-1 in the third inning. Danny Mendick led off with a double, moved to third on a fly out, and scored on Yoan Moncada's groundout to first.

The Cardinals got that run back by playing small ball in the fourth inning.

Fowler led off with an infield single and Bader drew a one-out walk. Both runners moved up on a groundout, then Fowler scored on when first baseman Jose Abreu bobbled Edman's weak chopper.

--Field Level Media