A special season on the verge of collapse, the Pittsburgh Pirates steadied themselves behind Pedro Alvarez.

The third baseman stayed hot, blasting his 26th homer of the season and driving in three runs as the Pirates rolled to a 5-0 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday night. Alvarez’s three-run shot in the third gave him seven home runs and 23 RBI in 15 games against the defending world champions.

“I was just out there trying to compete,” Alvarez said. “It’s just one of those things.”

The win, coming on the heels of a 9-0 rout over St. Louis on Tuesday, pulled Pittsburgh within one game of the Cardinals for the second NL wild card spot. It also gave them a needed boost as September neared.

Searching for the first winning season and playoff berth in two decades, the Pirates appeared in trouble after losing six of seven following a 4-3 defeat on Monday.

Instead, they bounced back with a resiliency that’s been their calling card all year and has them playing important baseball into September for the first time since Barry Bonds was patrolling the outfield at Three Rivers Stadium.

“We had to get back on the right track,” right fielder Garrett Jones said. “We were in a little rut there where for whatever reason we couldn’t get back on the winning track and things weren’t going our way. We stayed positive, stayed confident and knowing we could turn things around.”

Wandy Rodriguez (9-13) worked six tidy innings for Pittsburgh to pick up his first victory as a starter since being acquired in a trade last month. Rodriguez walked three and struck out three while helping the Pirates shut out the Cardinals for the second straight night.

“You go against that offense and you put 18 zeros on the board in 18 innings, I couldn’t be any prouder of them,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Offensively we found a way and had some two out big strikes. To finish the last 48 hours, we’re going to battle.”

Joe Kelly (4-6) struggled with control problems during five rocky innings, giving up five runs on eight hits.

The victory helped the Pirates take the season series from St. Louis 8-7, not an insignificant number with both teams battling for a postseason berth. If the two clubs are tied for the second wild-card spot at the end of the regular season, the Pirates would have host the play-in game.

The playoffs don’t begin for another five weeks. Pittsburgh, however, remains intent on being a factor until the end.

“We can definitely use these two wins as a sparkplug for games to come,” Alvarez said.

Particularly if the former first-round pick continues to develop into the lineup-anchoring power hitter the team envisioned when it drafted him four years ago. Alvarez certainly feasted on St. Louis pitching this season, going 23 for 58 (.396).

He gave Rodriguez all the offense necessary in the third. Coming to the plate with two on and two out, Alvarez drilled an 82 mph curveball from Kelly into the right field seats. The ball left the park so quickly Alvarez barely had time to break into his home run trot before it landed.

“I let the hottest hitter on their team beat me,” Kelly said. “I was down 3-1 and hung a breaking ball to a good hitter. I made a bad pitch and he made me pay.”

The blast gave the Pirates a 4-0 lead and Alvarez made it 5-0 in the fifth when he doubled with two outs and scored on a single by Josh Harrison.

Rodriguez took advantage of the cushion. He came in 0-4 as a starter with the Pirates after being acquired from Houston on July 24. His only victory came in two relief innings during Pittsburgh’s 19-inning marathon win in St. Louis on Aug. 19.

Hurdle blamed part of Rodriguez’s problems on the pressure of trying to validate the trade. Hurdle urged the veteran lefthander to relax, and Rodriguez looked at ease playing with a sizable lead for the first time as a Pirate. The Cardinals managed just three paltry singles against him and never got a runner to third.

“I feel very comfortable when I see the score 4-0,” Rodriguez said.

The Cardinals played without catcher Yadier Molina, who sat out as a precaution following a brutal collision at home with Harrison on Tuesday night. Molina suffered neck, shoulder and arm soreness after Harrison crashed into him trying to score from second.

Tony Cruz started in Molina’s place and had two of St. Louis’ five hits, but the Cardinals failed to muster any offense as their scoreless streak reached 21 innings.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of this this year, it’s been a lot of feast or famine,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s hard to understand it because we certainly have the ability to put something up there every night.”

— Associated Press —

Josh Harrison provided the pop. Pedro Alvarez provided the power. The reeling Pittsburgh Pirates eagerly accepted both.

Alvarez homered twice and drove in four runs after Harrison barreled into St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina and the Pirates rolled to a 9-0 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

While Alvarez crushed his 24th and 25th home runs of the season, it was Harrison’s violent collision at home plate with Molina in the second inning that sent the message the struggling Pirates aren’t quite finished just yet.

Harrison broke from second on Jose Tabata’s single to right with two outs and dashed for the plate. By the time he got there, Molina had the ball in his hands. The second baseman lowered his left shoulder and plowed into the catcher’s head. Molina somehow held onto the ball to end the inning

It also ended his night.

Molina got up slowly and went to the clubhouse with neck, back and shoulder injuries and was replaced by Tony Cruz. Watching Molina walk off the field was difficult, but Harrison insisted he had no choice.

“There was no way to slide around him,” Harrison said. “I felt my only way was to go through him.”

Molina, who complained of a headache afterward, doesn’t believe the hit was malicious.

“I never saw the guy coming,” Molina said. “I was concentrating on catching the ball. I never saw him coming, but the real pain was in my head. I don’t know if he was (targeting) my head or not.”

The play seemed to energize the Pirates, who snapped out of a weeklong funk and drew within two games of St. Louis for the NL’s second wild-card spot.

“It can spark a team,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “But it will be up to us to play better baseball than we’ve played lately and play along the lines that we did tonight.”

Having the streaky Alvarez heating up once again certainly helped. The third baseman hit a two-run homer in the third to give the Pirates a comfortable lead, added an RBI double in the fourth then hit a 469-foot blast to center in the sixth.

“The second one, the ball looked like it was going to hit the (Clemente) Bridge,” Hurdle said. “That’s 400 and I don’t know how many. That’s a whole bunch of feet. It goes to show you he can shrink a ballpark.”

It was more than enough offense for James McDonald (12-6), who gave up two hits in seven efficient innings, walking one and striking out six to beat the Cardinals and Jake Westbrook (13-10) for the second time in the last two weeks.

Using his curveball to keep the surging Cardinals off balance, McDonald looked like the pitcher that was one of baseball’s biggest surprises during the first half of the year, not the one that has stumbled at times over the last six weeks.

“I think it’s just part of the growing process,” catcher Mike McKenry said. “He’s just starting to come into his own. He had a tremendous first half and every pitcher struggles at some point and he just happened to struggle at the wrong time. He just enhanced it and we just had to take the world off his shoulders.”

McDonald had little trouble against the Cardinals’ surging lineup, surrendering only a two-out single to Molina in the second and a two-out double to Jon Jay in the sixth. Other than that he was flawless, allowing Pittsburgh’s weary bullpen to get a needed break.

Playing with a cushion for once didn’t hurt. The Pirates came in losers in six of their last seven since a dramatic 19-inning victory in St. Louis on Aug. 19, forced to play catch-up most nights while the starting pitching faltered.

This time, the Pirates jumped out early.

Garrett Jones hit a sacrifice fly to give Pittsburgh the lead and the Pirates continued to build. Alvarez hit a two-run shot to the notch in left-center to make it 3-0 in the third and got things started in the fifth with an RBI double to score Andrew McCutchen.

McKenry added a run-scoring single to make it 5-0. Westbrook exacted a little payback by drilling Harrison in the leg with a fastball, drawing a warning to both dugouts from home plate umpire Adrian Johnson.

Harrison took no offense at pitch, calling it “a part of the game.” He didn’t stay at first for long anyway. Clint Barmes followed the plunking with a two-run single the Pirates were up 7-0.

That was more than enough for McDonald. The Cardinals failed to get a runner to third while McDonald was in the game while getting shut out for the second time this month and the seventh time this season.

Westbrook has been a key part of the Cardinals’ rise during the second half, winning six of his previous seven decisions. He could do little right on a night the Pirates snapped out of their swoon in a big way.

The veteran right-hander gave up seven runs and 11 hits in five innings, tying a season high with four walks while striking out two. He threw just 61 of his 103 pitches for strikes.

“I haven’t been very good the last couple outings and I can’t ask the offense to pick me up that big like they did last start,” Westbrook said. “It’s just a matter of figuring it out.”

— Associated Press —

Mike Matheny was almost in awe when he talked about Matt Holliday’s home run.

“He killed it,” the St. Louis Cardinals manager said. “It’s hard to hit a ball that hard the opposite way but it was still going up when it hit the seats. He really hit it.”

Holliday’s homer was not only impressive but important as it broke a sixth-inning tie Monday night, and along with Kyle Lohse pitching five scoreless innings for his eight straight win, it helped lead the Cardinals to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Holliday led off the sixth inning with his 24th homer, a drive to right field off A.J. Burnett that put St. Louis ahead for good at 3-2.

“It always feels good to hit the ball on the barrel, especially on a pitch up in the strike zone,” Holliday said. “It was an important game for us. It’s not to the point of the season where it was a must-win game but it was a good game to win.”

St. Louis, which has won six of seven, moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost 10-0 at Colorado, for the second NL wild-card berth. Pittsburgh fell three games behind the Cardinals with its sixth loss in seven games.

Lohse (14-2) pitched five innings before being lifted following a 34-minute rain delay in the top of the sixth. He allowed two runs and five hits while striking out three and walking none.

“It was a really tricky to decide whether to leave Kyle in the game,” Matheny said. “The rain delay wasn’t all that long but he was at 83 pitches and he had run the bases. I just thought it was the right call to take him out.”

Lohse has not lost in 13 starts dating to June 15 and raised his career record against Pittsburgh to 9-2. He had an RBI single in the fifth inning.

Lohse did not fight Matheny’s decision to lift him, especially after being thrown out at home plate while trying to score from first base on Matt Carpenter’s double to end the top of the fifth inning.

“I don’t want to ever come out of a game but it was the best thing to come out,” Lohse said. “I didn’t feel as strong as I normally would.”

Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen thought the rain delay worked to St. Louis’ advantage because he felt Lohse was ripe to have his winning streak snapped.

“He wasn’t locating as well with his pitches as he normally does,” McCutchen said. “We were able to jump on him and get a couple runs off him in that one inning. We probably would have had another chance at him but that changed with the rain.”

Burnett (15-5) gave up four runs, three earned, and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and one walk. He lost at home for just second time this season in 10 decisions and 13 starts.

“I felt good but I made two bad pitches at the wrong time,” Burnett said. “Had I maybe thrown a hook to (Lohse) or kept the ball lower against Holliday then maybe things turn out different.”

Holliday, Allen Craig and Skip Schumaker all had two hits for the Cardinals as did McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez and Clint Barmes for Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals added a run in the sixth after Holliday’s home run as Yadier Molina hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.

The Pirates drew within a run in the seventh inning on Barmes’ RBI double. They put runners on first and second in the eighth but closer Jason Motte came in and escaped the jam by getting Josh Harrison to hit into an inning-ending force play.

Motte retired the side in the ninth for his 31st save in 36 opportunities.

St. Louis had tied the score 2-2 in the fifth inning as Shumaker hit a run-scoring double and scored on the single by Lohse.

The Pirates scored the game’s first two runs in the fourth on RBI singles by McCutchen and Alvarez after neither team produced a hit in the first 3 1/2 innings. Alvarez has 17 RBIs against the Cardinals this season.

“It hurt when they scored right after we did,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “One of (Burnett’s) strengths all year has been the shutdown inning.”

Instead, the momentum shifted to the Cardinals and Lohse can’t help but think their current hot streak is coming at the right time for the defending World Series champions.

“We’ve felt for a long time that we’ve been due to play like we’ve been playing the last week or so,” Lohse said. “We’re playing really well now and it’s the perfect time because we’re coming down the homestretch. It’s the right time of the year to win games like this.”

— Associated Press —