Gyorko's 30th HR lifts Cardinals past Pirates
ST. LOUIS -- Jedd Gyorko continued his remarkable second half Saturday by reaching a milestone no St. Louis Cardinal has attained in four years.
Gyorko's 30th home run, a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the eighth inning, snapped a tie and lifted St. Louis to a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium.
In becoming the first Cardinal since Carlos Beltran in 2012 to clout 30 homers in a season, Gyorko lined a 3-and-2 fastball from Felipe Rivero (1-6) some 362 feet into the right field seats. It was the 23rd homer since the All-Star break for Gyorko.
Reliever Kevin Siegrist (6-3) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win and Seung Hwan Oh, St. Louis' seventh pitcher, worked around two two-out singles in the ninth for his 19th save.
With the potential go-ahead runs in scoring position, Oh retired Pedro Florimon on a fly ball to left.
The Cardinals (85-76) moved within a half-game of San Francisco for the National League's second wild card spot, pending the outcome of the Giants' game with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Pittsburgh (78-82) grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first off starter Michael Wacha when Jung Ho Kang cracked his 21st homer of the season, a three-run shot into the Pirates' bullpen in left-center.
It was Kang's sixth homer this year against St. Louis.
Wacha was pulled after that inning, but six relievers kept Pittsburgh at bay, led by three innings from former closer Trevor Rosenthal, until the Cardinals could crack the code against rookie right-hander Chad Kuhl in the sixth.
Jhonny Peralta singled and Brandon Moss doubled to knock out Kuhl. Reliever Antonio Bastardo fanned Gyorko but threw a wild pitch on ball four to Randal Grichuk, scoring Peralta.
Matt Holliday pinch-hit for pitcher Matt Bowman and muscled an RBI hit to right, scoring Moss to make it 3-2 and moving Grichuk to third. Matt Carpenter followed with a game-tying sacrifice fly to center.
Kuhl allowed eight hits and two runs in five-plus innings, walking one and striking out five.
NOTES: Matt Holliday's pinch home run in the seventh inning Friday night gave St. Louis six players with 20 or more home runs this year, tying a National League record held by the Braves of 1965 and 2003, and this year's Nationals. ... Pittsburgh CF Andrew McCutchen didn't start on Saturday after making his 150th start of the season on Friday night, the sixth time in seven years he's reached that mark.