Garrett Jones homered to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning and lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Jones connected on a 2-2 pitch from Arthur Rhodes (3-4) for his 14th home run. It was also Jones’ second career game-ending homer as he connected against San Francisco’s Bob Howry on July 17, 2009.

Center fielder Andrew McCutchen prevented St. Louis from going ahead in the top of the 11th when he made a running backhanded inning-ending catch to rob Albert Pujols of extra bases and keep Rafael Furcal from scoring from first base.

Chris Resop (4-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the win.

Pittsburgh tied the game in the ninth when Neil Walker homered on the first pitch from closer Fernando Salas. Walker, who has 10 homers, had not connected at home since June 5.

Salas, a rookie who suffered his fourth blown save in 27 opportunities, escaped further trouble when he got Brandon Wood to fly out and Ryan Ludwick to ground out with a runner on second base.

St. Louis had gone ahead in the top of the ninth on Matt Holliday’s sacrifice fly off closer Joel Hanrahan, snapping his streak of 15 consecutive scoreless innings. The Cardinals entered the day six games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central.

Albert Pujols reached 30 home runs for the 11th consecutive season when he connected in the sixth inning. The NL home runs leader is the first player in the major-league history to hit 30 homers in each of his first 11 seasons.

Pujols’ 28 career home runs at PNC Park are his most at any visiting stadium.

Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter struck out 10 in seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with one walk.

Walker had three hits for the Pirates, Andrew McCutchen blasted a three-run home run and had two hits and Jose Tabata had two hits in his first game since strained his left quadriceps on June 26. Jones also had two hits.

David Freese had three hits for the Cardinals and Jay added two.

Pittsburgh starter Jeff Karstens allowed three runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.

Jay led off the ninth with a double down the left-field line and was bunted to third by Rafael Furcal. Pujols was intentionally walked for the second straight plate appearances so Hanrahan could face Holliday, who briefly put the Cardinals ahead with his sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals tied the score at 3-3 with a two-run sixth inning that chased Karstens.

Pujols led off the inning with his home run into the right-field stands. Lance Berkman singled one out later and scored on Freese’s double to right.

McCutchen’s home run down the right-field line in the third off Carpenter put Pittsburgh ahead 3-1. The two-out drive came after Karstens walked and Tabata singled.

McCutchen helped St. Louis scored the game’s first run in the second inning when he allowed Holliday’s line drive to sail over his head for a leadoff double. Skip Schumaker drove in Holiday with a two-out single.

— Associated Press —

Ryan Doumit had a big chunk of his season wiped out by an injury. He seems intent on making up for lost time.

Doumit went 4 for 4 and hit a tiebreaking three-run home run to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Doumit’s homer in the fourth inning off Jake Westbrook (9-7) snapped a 1-1 tie and helped Pittsburgh break its three-game losing streak. The switch-hitting catcher matched a career high with his sixth four-hit game.

Doumit was on the disabled list from May 30-Aug. 2 after suffering a severely sprained left ankle in a home plate collision. He is 10 for 23 (.435) in eight games since being activated.

“There is always concern when somebody is coming back after being out for so long but he’s come back as clean as any player I’ve ever had,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s been in a pretty good place. He’s seeing the ball extremely well and he’s working extremely hard.”

Doumit, who has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, couldn’t come up with a reason for why he is hitting so well since his return.

“I really can’t put my finger on it,” he said. “I’m riding the wave right now and I just want to keep riding it as long as I can.”

St. Louis, which had won three of its last four, fell six games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Brewers blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-0 on Monday night.

Xavier Paul, who homered, and Neil Walker each had two hits for the Pirates, and James McDonald (8-6) pitched 5 2-3 uneven innings to end his three-start winless streak. McDonald allowed two runs and six hits while walking two and striking out four.

“It was a good win for the team and that’s the most important thing because we had a pretty tough ending to our road trip,” Doumit said, referring to the Pirates being swept in a three-game weekend series at Milwaukee.

The Cardinals’ Ryan Theriot had three hits and Matt Holliday doubled twice, including the 200th of his career.

St. Louis went 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.

“The name of the game is execution,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “We had a double twice and didn’t score a run. A lot of that is their pitching but some of it was we could have done a better job.”

Westbrook gave up five runs, four earned, and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings while walking one and striking out three.

Jose Veras got what was likely the biggest out of the game for Pittsburgh when he relieved Daniel McCutchen in the seventh. With two outs and runners on first and second with a 5-2 lead, Veras got Albert Pujols to look at a called third strike on a curveball on the inside corner.

“It mano-a-mano right there,” Doumit said. “You know Albert is coming up ready to do some damage but Jose has great stuff with his fastball and curveball. We decided to go with the curve to keep him off balance and get him out, and it worked.”

Pujols went 1 for 4 with a single one night after taking over the NL home run lead with 29. He is looking to hit 30 homers for the 11th consecutive season.

Paul opened the scoring when he led off the bottom of the first inning with his second home run of the season and third of his career.

The Cardinals tied it in the third as Rafael Furcal’s two-out double drove in Theriot, who led off with a single and advanced to second on Westbrook’s sacrifice bunt.

Doumit hit his sixth homer in the fourth on an 0-1 curveball to put the Pirates ahead. Walker and Garrett Jones led off the inning with singles and Doumit followed with a drive to right field.

“They capitalized on the mistakes that I made,” Westbrook said. “I felt strong about my sinker and it’s a little frustrating to get hurt on my fifth-best pitch on the home run.”

David Freese’s RBI single chased McDonald in the top of the sixth but Pittsburgh got the run back in the bottom of the inning on a throwing error by shortstop Furcal.

Walker doubled home a run in the seventh to push the Pirates’ lead to 6-2.

The Pirates won the opener of their six-game homestand after going 0-7 the last time they were at PNC Park. It was their longest winless homestand in the franchise’s 125-year history.

“We’ve already won one more game at home this time,” Hurdle said with a smile. “Good for us.”

— Associated Press —