Jordan Walker homers in 3-run 7th inning to help Cardinals beat Pirates 4-1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thomas Saggese hit a go-ahead RBI double and Jordan Walker homered in a three-run seventh inning to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1 on Thursday.

Miles Mikolas allowed one run on four hits and a walk and struck out five in five innings.

Kyle Leahy (4-1) recorded four strikeouts in two scoreless innings of relief, Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless eighth and JoJo Romero pitched the ninth for his fifth save.

Pirates rookie Braxton Ashcraft allowed one run on four hits and recorded five strikeouts in a career-best 5 2/3 innings before being replaced by Yohan Ramírez (1-2).

Iván Herrera lined a double to left field, scoring Lars Nootbaar to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the third inning.

Tommy Pham lined his eighth home run of the season 440 feet over the left-field bullpen in the first inning to put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0.

Masyn Winn was hit by a pitch from Ramírez to lead off the seventh and scored on Saggese’s double to the right-center field wall to put St. Louis ahead 2-1. Walker then hit the next pitch into the left-center field bleachers for his fifth home run of the season to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 4-1.

Ashcraft is 1-0 with a 1.19 ERA over 19 innings in four starts since joining the starting rotation on Aug. 9 versus Cincinnati.

RHP Paul Skenes (8-9, 2.09 ERA) starts for the Pirates in the opener of a three-game series Friday night at Boston, which has not named a starter. Cardinals LHP Matthew Liberatore (6-11, 4.27) opposes RHP Zack Littell (9-8, 3.62) to open a three-game series in Cincinnati Friday night.

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