Cardinals 3, Red Sox 2: Jon Jay delivered a third consecutive two-out single in the eighth inning to plate A.J. Pierzynski with the go-ahead run and give host St. Louis a victory in the opener of the three-game interleague series.

Pierzynski began the rally against his former team and went to third on Oscar Taveras' base hit before coming home on Jay's broken-bat bloop single to shallow center field off Junichi Tazawa (1-3). Matt Adams and Kolten Wong also drove in a run apiece and Pat Neshek (5-0) notched the win after striking out the side in the top of the eighth before Trevor Rosenthal worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to secure his major league-leading 35th save for the Cardinals, who remained one game behind first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central.

Christian Vazquez and Will Middlebrooks each recorded an RBI for the Red Sox, who lost for the 11th time in 13 games. Yoenis Cespedes collected three of the team's five hits and scored a run for the third time in as many contests since being acquired from Oakland in the blockbuster deal involving Jon Lester.

St. Louis stranded a runner at third base in the first inning and Boston failed to score after a leadoff triple by Cespedes in the second before the Cardinals got on the board two frames later. Matt Holliday doubled with one out and came home on Adams' single for a 1-0 lead.

The Red Sox answered quickly as leadoff hitter Daniel Nava reached on a two-base error and advanced on a groundout before scoring on Vazquez's sacrifice fly in the fifth. Boston jumped ahead in the seventh as Cardinals starter Lance Lynn loaded the bases on two hits and an intentional walk before failing to cleanly field Middlebrooks' comebacker, allowing Cespedes to score easily, but Wong delivered a two-out RBI single in the bottom half to forge a 2-2 tie.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Jay returned to the lineup after missing five games with a sore wrist. ... Boston OF Allen Craig will not get to face his former team as he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left foot. ... Holliday was ejected by home plate umpire Mark Ripperger for arguing a called third strike that ended the seventh inning. ... Boston starter Rubby De La Rosa remained winless in five road starts this season despite allowing only one run over six innings, while Lynn yielded one earned run and one unearned for the third straight start.