Paul DeJong and Paul Goldschmidt hit long solo home runs to power the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 Saturday.
The Cardinals snapped their five-game losing streak while winning for just the seventh time in their past 25 games. Meanwhile the Pirates lost their 12th road game in their past 14 tries.
Winning pitcher Adam Wainwright (6-5) allowed one run on six hits in six innings. He struck out eight batters and walked only one.
Relievers Genesis Cabrera, Giovanny Gallegos and Alex Reyes blanked the Pirates over the last three innings. Reyes earned his 18th save in 18 opportunities.
Losing pitcher JT Brubaker (4-7) allowed three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings.
The Cardinals took a quick 1-0 lead. Dylan Carlson drew a leadoff walk in the first inning, Goldschmidt hit a single up the middle and Yadier Molina poked a two-out RBI single into right field.
Brubaker avoided further damage by getting Tommy Edman to hit an inning-ending groundout.
DeJong, who had been mired in a 5-for-44 slump, put the Cardinals up 2-0 in the second inning by blasting his homer off the facing of the third left field deck.
Gregory Polanco got that run back for the Pirates by lining a fourth-inning homer into the right field seats.
But Goldschmidt's 470-foot homer to center field in the fifth inning pushed the Cardinals' advantage to 3-1.
Wainwright worked out of trouble in the sixth after allowing singles by Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds to start the inning. He struck out Polanco and Phillip Evans before retiring Michael Perez on an inning-ending fly out.
Moran hit a one-out double in the eighth off Gallegos, but Reynolds struck out and Polanco popped out to strand him.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | St. Louis | |
JT Brubaker | Player | Adam Wainwright |
Loss | W/L | Win |
6.0 | IP | 6.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 8 |
6 | Hits | 6 |
4.50 | ERA | 1.50 |
Pittsburgh | St. Louis | |
Erik Gonzalez | Player | Paul Goldschmidt |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 1 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.500 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 7 | 1 | 11 | .212 | 17 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
St. Louis | 6 | 2 | 13 | .207 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 |