Wacha, homers too much for Bucs

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Matt Holliday and Kolten Wong hit three-run homers and Michael Wacha remained unbeaten as the St. Louis Cardinals held off the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-5 on Friday night.

Holliday sent a towering shot to left-center off Francisco Liriano (1-2) in the third inning and Wong put it away with a drive over the Clemente Wall in right off Arquimedes Caminero in the seventh. Jhonny Peralta also homered for the Cardinals, who have won 10 of 11.

Wong finished with three hits. Trevor Rosenthal worked the ninth for his 11th save as the Cardinals improved to a major-league best 22-7. Wacha (5-0) produced six workmanlike innings, giving up three runs and six hits with one strikeout.

Starling Marte had three hits for Pittsburgh and Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Francisco Cervelli added two each.

The Pirates have dropped six of seven and eight of 10. Liriano struck out a season-high 10 but also gave up two homers as his ERA rose from 1.93 to 2.79.

The Cardinals swept Pittsburgh in three taut games in St. Louis last weekend, winning all three on extra-inning walk-off hits despite managing just seven runs the entire weekend. They topped that number the first seven innings on Friday.

Seven of St. Louis’ 11 hits went for extra bases, including two doubles by Peter Bourjos and doubles by Holliday and Wong.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Carlos Martinez (3-0) will try to stay unbeaten when he makes his seventh start of the season for St. Louis. The 23-year-old Martinez has a 1.29 ERA on the road, the fourth-best mark in the National League.

Pirates: Vance Worley starts for the Pirates. Worley gave up one run in six innings of a no-decision against the Cardinals in his previous start last Sunday.