Pirates 5, Cardinals 1: Francisco Liriano came within an out of his second career shutout as visiting Pittsburgh snapped a four-game losing streak.

Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones belted solo home runs and Starling Marte added a two-run double as the Pirates bounced back from Tuesday's 14-inning loss to improve to 8-4 against St. Louis. The victory moved the first-place Pirates three games ahead of the Cardinals in the National League Central.

Liriano (13-5) bounced back from a 10-run shelling in his last start with a dominant effort, allowing four hits to win for the fourth time in five starts and boost his lifetime record versus St. Louis to 3-0. He struck out six and walked one in his second complete game of the season, losing the shutout when Matt Carpenter scored on Carlos Beltran's groundout.

Cardinals rookie Shelby Miller (11-8) was tagged for five runs - three earned - on eight hits in six innings to fall to 0-3 against Pittsburgh this season. Miller lasted only two pitches in his last start after taking a line drive off his pitching elbow.

Alvarez put the Pirates on the board with a towering 440-foot homer, his NL-leading 29th, to lead off the second and Jones swatted his 11th shot two batters later. Pittsburgh tacked on three runs in the fourth on Tony Sanchez's RBI single and Marte's two-out, two-run double for a 5-0 lead.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen had his eighth two-hit effort in the last 11 games. ... Cardinals LF Matt Holliday extended his hitting streak to 11 games and his on-base streak to 19 straight with a second-inning single. ... Marte's two-run double halted a 14-game RBI drought and gave him hits in 11-of-12 games against St. Louis this season.