Red Sox 2, Cardinals 1: Xander Bogaerts lifted a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to snap a tie and lead visiting Boston to victory.

Yoenis Cespedes led off the ninth against Trevor Rosenthal (1-6) with a single and Mike Napoli followed with a double before pinch-hitter David Ortiz was walked intentionally to load the bases. Bogaerts drove Rosenthal's next pitch to center field, allowing Cespedes to trot home for the go-ahead run, and All-Star Koji Uehara worked around two hits in the bottom half for his 23rd save.

Bogaerts also plated a run with a double and Napoli recorded two hits for the Red Sox, who halted a three-game slide with their third win in 14 contests. Junichi Tazawa (2-3) notched the victory with a perfect inning in relief of Joe Kelly, who had an excellent debut for Boston by allowing one run and three hits over seven innings against his former team.

Matt Adams went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Cardinals, who remained one game behind first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central and saw their lead over Pittsburgh for the second wild-card spot shrink to one-half game. Shelby Miller settled for a no-decision after holding Boston to one run and four hits over seven innings.

St. Louis got to Kelly for an early run as Matt Carpenter led off the first inning with a double and scored on Adams' single three batters later. The Red Sox answered in the fourth, when Bogaerts followed Daniel Nava's two-out single with an RBI double.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The start of the game was delayed 63 minutes due to rain. ... Adams led off the ninth inning with a single, which was the first hit for St. Louis since C A.J. Pierzynski's leadoff single in the second. ... Miller has allowed a total of five runs and 10 hits over 18 2/3 innings in his last three starts but is just 1-0 in that span.