Cards rally, beat Pirates; now 2nd in NL Central

CARDINALS 11, PIRATES 9

ST. LOUIS — Lane Thomas hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning, Paul Goldschmidt and Dexter Fowler also homered, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-9 Sunday.

St. Louis rallied from an 8-4 deficit to sweep the three-game series and move into second place in the NL Central, two games behind the Chicago Cubs.

Josh Bell had two home runs and four RBI for Pittsburgh, which has lost eight consecutive. Pablo Reyes added a solo shot in the ninth.

Thomas, a rookie outfielder playing his 21st game, drove in five runs. His first career slam came off Kyle Crick (3-7) and put the Cardinals ahead 9-8. He also had an RBI triple in the fourth.

John Gant (8-0) tossed a scoreless seventh to pick up the win. Andrew Miller picked up his fourth save in six tries.

Goldschmidt hit his team-high 26th home run in the first inning and started the five-run seventh-inning rally with a leadoff single. Marcell Ozuna followed with a single, and Crick hit back-to-back batters to set the stage for Thomas’ third home run of the season.

Fowler hit a two-run home run in the eighth off Geoff Hartlieb.

Bell hit two-run home runs in the first and fifth innings. It was the fifth multi-home run game of his career, all this season.

Pittsburgh starter Steven Brault gave up 4 earned runs on 5 hits over 42/3 innings. He struck out three and walked three.

Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas surrendered 5 earned runs and 7 hits over 5 innings. He gave up both home runs to Bell.

BRAVES 5, MARLINS 4 Ronald Acuna Jr. hit his 33rd home run and sixth in as many games, helping Atlanta beat host Miami.

CUBS 6, REDS 3 Kris Bryant capped the Cubs’ four-run seventh with a three-run home run, and visiting Chicago topped Cincinnati for a split of their four-game series.

NATIONALS 7, METS 4 Asdrubal Cabrera hit a tiebreaking two-run double against his former team, helping Washington beat host New York.

ROCKIES 8, PADRES 3 Yonder Alonso hit his 100th career home run in the sixth and German Marquez pitched eight strong innings as visiting Colorado topped San Diego.

DODGERS 9, DIAMONDBACKS 3 Justin Turner hit two home runs and Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched seven scoreless innings of five-hit ball as host Los Angeles defeated Arizona.

GIANTS 9, PHILLIES 6 Kevin Pillar hit a tiebreaking triple, closer Will Smith followed with a two-run single in his first career at-bat and host San Francisco beat Philadelphia.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

ORIOLES 8, ASTROS 7 Rio Ruiz hit a tworun home run in the ninth to carry Baltimore over visiting Houston. ANGELS 5, RED SOX 4 (10) Anthony Bemboom hit a go-ahead single in the 10th, leading Los Angeles past host Boston.

YANKEES 1, BLUE JAYS 0 Masahiro Tanaka and Aroldis Chapman combined on a four-hitter for the Yankees as visiting New York defeated Toronto.

ROYALS 10, TIGERS 2 Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler each homered twice, and Kansas City routed host Detroit.

INDIANS 7, TWINS 3 (10) Carlos Santana hit a grand slam in the 10th inning, and visiting Cleveland beat Minnesota to win their four-game series.

ATHLETICS 2, WHITE SOX 0 Chris Bassitt threw seven sharp innings and Matt Olson homered, leading Oakland over host Chicago.

RAYS 1, MARINERS 0 Ryan Yarbrough came within an out of his first career shutout, Eric Sogard hit a solo home run and visiting Tampa Bay beat Seattle.

INTERLEAGUE

RANGERS 1, BREWERS 0 Mike Minor (11-6) allowed 4 hits, walked 1 and struck out 11 in 8 innings as Texas avoided a sweep by host Milwaukee.