Cardinals knock off Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Matt Carpenter homered in two straight games entering Sunday. By contrast, Jack Flaherty had allowed at least one home run in each of his previous three starts.

Carpenter kept his streak going while Flaherty brought his to an end to lift the St. Louis Cardinals to a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Flaherty (5-6) allowed three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in six innings. It marked the first time he completed six innings since July 3, when he surrendered four runs in six against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Carpenter hit a solo home run in the fifth inning — his career-high 29th of the season, tying him with Colorado's Nolan Arenado for the NL lead — and Jedd Gyorko singled to drive in a run later that inning to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

"(Leading the National League in home runs) is definitely not something I've ever really thought about," Carpenter said. "It's just a crazy stretch. There's not much thought behind it other than I'm just trying to hit the ball hard. I'm really not trying to hit home runs. It just happens."

St. Louis took the final two games of the threegame series to move past Pittsburgh into third place alone in the NL Central.

"Just good baseball," interim Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. "It started on the mound. Jack was really, really tough through six innings. Offense competed well . ... Some tough at bats, good at bats, and good pitching all the way through."

Bud Norris retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the ninth for his 21st save.

Flaherty recovered after giving up four runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings of a 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies in his last start.

He got out of trouble twice on Sunday, first when the Pirates had runners on second and third with one out. Corey Dickerson struck out and Starling Marte grounded out to end the third inning. With runners on first and third two innings later, Flaherty forced Jordan Luplow into an inning-ending double play.

"That was more where I kind of wanted to be at," Flaherty said. "It was nice to make adjustments from the last time out, the last few times out, just to try to get ahead. Once it was get ahead, it was stay ahead."

Carpenter's home run to right with one out in the fifth ended Trevor Williams' streak of 21½ innings without allowing a run. That stretched back to July 6, when Williams (9-8) gave up three runs in the third inning of a 17-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

"At that point of the game, you are upset they are up 1-0. That's what I was worried about," Williams said. "Knowing how good Flaherty was throwing and how well he was executing his pitches, it was tough. It's unfortunate that that one blink cost the game today, but that's kind of how baseball is right now."

After the homer, Williams surrendered consecutive singles to Yadier Molina and Jose Martinez before Gyorko scored Molina with a single to left. Williams allowed those two runs on nine hits with three strikeouts in five innings.

Adam Frazier hit a home run off reliever Chasen Shreve to make it 2-1 in the seventh.

"Now we go on the road and it's (against) good teams," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "I just love the fact that we are in the hunt. Time to go. We would have loved to won more games here. We did not. Now, it's time to go put a better package together on the road."

BRAVES 5, METS 4, 10 innings.

NEW YORK (AP) — Sure, Julio Teheran had perfected his home run celebration. Plenty of times, clowning with Atlanta pitchers during batting practice.

He just never got to trot it out.

Teheran hit his first big league homer to begin Atlanta's comeback, and Nick Markakis homered in the 10th inning to send the Braves over the New York Mets 5-4 Sunday.

Long a Mets nemesis on the mound, Teheran found a new way to torment them. He stepped up in the fifth as a career .153 hitter, clubbed a high fastball over the left-field wall, and took a leisurely jog.

"You don't know when you're going to hit one," he said, adding: "It's a homer, you enjoy it."

Now in his eighth season in the majors, the twotime All-Star said his last home run came in high school. Not much at the plate since then.

"I didn't feel like running the bases," he kidded.

He got the ball, too, a nice souvenir on an afternoon when a lot of Atlanta players contributed.

Markakis finished with four hits and took over the NL lead from teammate Freddie Freeman. Ender Inciarte also homered and Ronald Acuna Jr. delivered a key single as the Braves posted their sixth victory in seven games.

The NL East contenders took three of four at Citi Field for their first winning road series in more than a month.

Teheran continued to have control trouble and walked four in 5 2/3 innings. His solo home run off rookie Corey Oswalt came with Atlanta trailing 3-0.

"He kept us in the game. He got us back in the game," manager Brian Snitker said.

Devin Mesoraco hit a tying home run in the Mets ninth — he was standing at second base when a replay review showed the ball cleared the wall, making it 4-all.

"I couldn't quite tell the first view. But then the second one, I knew it was," Mesoraco said.

A.J. Minter (4-2), who had been 8 for 8 in save chances this year, got the win despite giving up Mesoraco's solo drive with one out.

Braves rookie Jesse Biddle worked around Wilmer Flores' leadoff double in the 10th for his first big league save. Jose Bautista, in an 0-for-23 slump, and Todd Frazier grounded out with Flores on third to end it.

New York rookie Tyler Bashlor (0-1) was tagged for Markakis' 13th homer with one out. The Mets have lost five of six, and fell to 4-12 against Atlanta this season.

Acuna hit an RBI single with two outs in the ninth that put Atlanta ahead 4-3.

The Braves pulled off an unusual double play to stay close in the sixth.