Two long shots was all it took for the St. Louis Cardinals. Not that Lance Berkman or Yadier Molina were swinging for the fences.

Berkman hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning and Molina had a three-run shot in the second, helping the Cardinals overcome a pair of deficits to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4 on Friday night.

“You’re not stepping in the batters’ box saying ‘I need to hit a home run right here,'” Berkman said. “I don’t know that anybody ever does that and if they do, I may have done it a few times, it never works.

“Generally, you’re just saying ‘Hey, let’s get a good pitch to hit.'”

Matt Holliday walked with one out in the eighth against Jose Veras (2-4) before Berkman hit his 30th homer.

Berkman didn’t think the Cardinals were reliant on the long ball, but pointed out that most top offenses have a lot of power.

“You’re not going to score a lot of runs in the major leagues unless you have guys who hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Berkman said. “If you want to assemble a different roster, if you don’t like home runs, don’t watch us play.”

Andrew McCutchen had three hits and an RBI for the Pirates, who have dropped seven of 10 and are in a 10-27 tailspin since July 19 when they were seven games above .500.

Pittsburgh opened with three runs in the first but could have made it a much deeper hole for St. Louis.

“A big hit would have blown it open, there’s no doubt,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve been shaking the pom-poms for that throughout the season — one more hit in the big time with runners in scoring position.

“We were looking for one more hit and we didn’t get it.”

Hurdle gave no thought to getting closer Joel Hanrahan into the game in the eighth given Veras’ reliability. The right-hander had allowed one earned run in 12 1/3 innings his previous 13 appearances and leads Pittsburgh with 68 games.

The homer was the first allowed by Veras since July 31.

“Veras has probably done as much as any eighth-inning setup guy this year as far as pitching through the meat of the order and getting the ball to the closer,” Hurdle said. “It was down, but it was working back towards the barrel and into his swing path.”

The Pirates had one hit in their final 13 at-bats — McCutchen was caught stealing after singling to start the seventh — and they didn’t get the ball out of the infield against Kyle McClellan. Manager Tony La Russa said McClellan was pitching so well he had to let him start the ninth, but said Jason Motte would have relieved if Pittsburgh got a man on base.

Berkman reached 30 homers for the sixth time in his career, leaving him one behind teammate Albert Pujols for the NL lead, coming off a career-worst 14 homers in an injury-plagued 2010. The Cardinals’ 3-4-5 hitters had been 0 for 8 with three walks before the homer.

“He’s had a fantastic year,” Hurdle said. “You talk about some fine shopping in the offseason.”

St. Louis wore throwback 1985 jerseys in honor of Willie McGee bobblehead night, with the fan favorite center fielder throwing out the first pitch while accompanied by Ozzie Smith and Vince Coleman.

McClellan (10-6) struck out two in two perfect innings for the Cardinals, who overcame a shaky start from Jake Westbrook. Westbrook gave up three runs in the first and matched his season-high with five walks.

“When you have a slow start like that, it’s one of those things where you have to tell yourself you can’t give up anymore and that’s all they get,” Westbrook said. “Yaddy had a big homer and Lance an even bigger homer and that’s the reason why you have to hang in there and put up zeroes.”

The first four Pirates reached safely in the first, with McCutcheon and Ryan Doumit getting an RBI apiece, and Josh Harrison added a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.

Molina’s fourth homer in seven games and 12th of the year, adding to a career best, tied it in the second. He has three homers and eight RBIs against the Pirates.

James McDonald had been bidding to beat the Cardinals for the second time in three starts. He was lifted after Rafael Furcal’s single to start the seventh, leaving up 4-3.

“I made one mistake, one pitch, and it was a three-run homer,” McDonald said. “It was a bad pitch and he made me pay for it. Overall, I was pleased.”

— Associated Press —

For the second straight day, the Los Angeles Dodgers leaned on a big inning. For the second straight day, the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves hopelessly behind.

Juan Rivera homered and knocked in three runs and the Dodgers scored an early knockout with a six-run third, completing their first road sweep of the season with a 9-4 victory on Wednesday. The Cardinals have been swept twice at home and Rivera homered in both, helping the Blue Jays take a three-game set from June 24-26 before the Dodgers traded for him in July.

“We’re putting up a lot of runs lately and we’re not stopping,” James Loney said. “We’ve had some big innings and we’re coming back and putting up some more.”

The Cardinals were outscored 24-7 in the Dodgers’ first three-game sweep in St. Louis since Aug. 20-22, 1993, and have dropped seven of nine overall. They failed to take advantage of a rare loss by NL Central-leading Milwaukee, remaining 10 games back with 32 to go.

“Especially when you get swept at home, that’s as bad as it can get,” manager Tony La Russa said. “The last two games, we’ve been out of it.”

Hiroki Kuroda (10-14) worked seven solid innings in 98-degree heat with a huge cushion and A.J. Ellis hit his first career homer off of Jaime Garcia (10-7) to give the Dodgers a two-day total of six long balls. Matt Kemp had two singles and two RBIs, his fourth multihit effort in five games, and Loney had three hits with a pair of doubles and an RBI.

“We’ve swung the bats good the last couple of days, but you look at the long haul and we really haven’t been able to sustain that,” manager Don Mattingly said.

Despite a 2.92 ERA, Kuroda needed 26 starts to get to double figures in victories. The Dodgers have totaled 24 runs his last three outings, all victories, but in 12 of his starts have scored two or fewer runs.

“I had a good rhythm from the beginning of the game, especially throwing that first-pitch breaking ball,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “Having the run support makes a lot of difference.

“I was able to try out a lot of different patterns, unlike many other games I’ve had during the season.”

The Cardinals trailed 6-0 before Garcia got his first at-bat leading off the third and a day earlier it was 7-0 before Kyle Lohse struck out for the final out of the second.

La Russa said he wouldn’t do anything like asking veterans to hold a meeting, saying it would shift blame from the coaching staff to players.

“We’re all in this thing together, we talk all the time, and we’ll get it fixed together,” La Russa said. “Whether I talk or don’t talk or some talk, whatever.”

St. Louis was 1½ games behind the Brewers after acquiring Edwin Jackson and Rafael Furcal at the trade deadline, but is 10-13 since while the Brewers have gone 24-5. Gerald Laird hit his first National League homer, a two-run drive in the seventh and Skip Schumaker had four hits and an RBI for St. Louis.

Eight straight Dodgers reached safely to start a six-run third that matched their season best and put them up 6-1. The rally was kicked off by a pair of walks followed by six straight hits that produced at least one RBI.

Garcia said he should have taken more time between pitches. Instead, the lefty rushed it a bit.

“When stuff like that happens, you’ve got to step off and think about the pitch you’re going to make,” Garcia said. “Just relax for a little bit and try to limit the damage.

“I’m not going to lie, sometimes I don’t do a very good job. But I’m trying.”

Garcia, who had been 6-3 with a 2.06 ERA at home, finally recorded his first out of the inning on Kuroda’s sacrifice and gave up seven runs in five innings. He’s 0-3 in his last six starts and has lasted just five innings four of the last five outings.

Kuroda has won four of his last five starts and is 3-2 with a 2.11 ERA in six day starts. The right-hander allowed three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and a walk.

The Dodgers finished 4-3 against the Cardinals for their first series win since 2003 and took the lead in the series at 1,002-1,001.

Schumaker had five straight hits, all singles, after pitching the ninth in a 13-2 shellacking Tuesday night.

— Associated Press —