Jon Jay doubled, tripled and scored two runs, and Jaime Garcia notched his first win since July 23 as the St. Louis Cardinals overcame an early two-run deficit to post a 6-4 victory over the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday each had two hits and an RBI for St. Louis, which has won seven of its last nine contests.

The Cardinals remained 8 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central and 7 1/2 back of the Atlanta Braves in the wild-card race.

Starter Homer Bailey (7-7) gave Cincinnati a 2-0 lead with an RBI single in the second but allowed three runs in the bottom half and two more in the third before exiting. Garcia capped the second-inning rally with a run-scoring single while Jay led off the third with a triple and scored on Pujols' base hit.

Pitching on nine days' rest, Garcia (11-7) yielded two runs - one earned - and seven hits over six innings. The lefthander, who had gone 0-3 with a 6.68 ERA over his previous six starts, improved to 6-1 lifetime against the Reds.

Jason Motte recorded the final five outs for his second save of the season.

Jay Bruce belted a two-run homer and Edgar Renteria collected three hits and an RBI for Cincinnati, which has lost five of six.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was scratched from the lineup with tightness in his left calf.