Cards rally in ninth against Reds’ Iglesias

Kolten Wong hit a walk-off RBI single and the St. Louis Cardinals returned to Busch Stadium with a rousing rally, scoring three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 Thursday night.

St. Louis played its first home game since July 26. The Cardinals were idle for 17 days after 10 players tested positive for the coronavirus.

St. Louis put the first four batters on base in the ninth against Cincinnati closer Raisel Iglesias (1-2). Dexter Fowler loaded the bases with a single, and Yadier Molina hit a grounder off the glove of Iglesias, cutting the deficit to 4-3.

Iglesias followed with a run-scoring balk to tie it and set up Wong for his winning hit.

Cincinnati starter Sonny Gray struck out six over six innings to bring his National League-leading total to 51.

Freddy Galvis homered off Adam Wainwright as the Reds pushed across four runs in the first three innings to lead 4-2. But the 38-year-old Cardinals starter retired the last 15 batters he faced to keep his team in the game.

"We just didn't get it done," Cincinnati manager David Bell said. "The key to the game was not scoring more runs (earlier) or adding on."

Bieber improves to 5-0

Unbeaten Shane Bieber racked up 11 more strikeouts and the Cleveland Indians blanked the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 on Thursday night to complete a three-game sweep and extend their winning streak to a season-high six games.

Bieber (5-0) allowed six hits and walked none in six innings, throwing 99 pitches. The right-hander has struck out a major league-best 65 in 40 2/3 innings, an average of 14.4 per nine innings.

“You saw why he’s one of the best pitchers in the game,” Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings said. “He has five good pitches and command of them all. When you have stuff and command, you’re going to put up (strikeout) numbers like that.”

Oliver Perez, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak and Brad Hand finished the shutout.

Padres make grand slam history

Eric Hosmer hit a grand slam in the fifth inning Thursday night against the Texas Rangers, making the San Diego Padres the first team in major league history to hit a slam in four straight games.

The Padres' grand slam barrage started with a controversial homer by Fernando Tatis Jr. on Monday night, when he went deep on a 3-and-0 pitch with the Padres leading by seven runs.

Wil Myers hit a slam on Tuesday, and Manny Machado hit a walkoff slam in the 10th inning Wednesday.

San Diego won all four games in the series.