ST. LOUIS (AP) — Michael Wacha came close, again.

The St. Louis righty lost a no-hit bid in the ninth inning for the second time in his career, denied when pinch-hitter Colin Moran led off with a single Sunday in the Cardinals’ 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“It’s just a slight disappointment because I wanted it,” Wacha said. “I’ve flirted with it a couple times. It just didn’t happen. Maybe next time.”

“I was trying to get a changeup down and away,” he said. “It ended up being middle-middle, just leaving it up in the zone. I gave him something he can handle.”

As a rookie in 2013, Wacha was one out away from a no-hitter when Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman got an infield single.

Wacha (7-1) came close to pitching the fourth no-hitter in the major leagues this season. He was in total control, striking out eight and walking two while mixing his fastball, curve and change.

Bud Smith was the last St. Louis pitcher to throw a no-hitter, doing it as a rookie in 2001 at San Diego. The last Cardinals pitcher to toss a no-hitter at home was Bob Forsch in 1983 against Montreal.

Wacha retired the first 13 batters, and the closest the Pirates had come to a hit was Josh Bell’s flyout to the warning track in the second inning until the ninth.

St. Louis catcher Francisco Pena appeared more disappointed than Wacha at missing a shot at history.

“By the sixth inning, I was thinking about it, I’m not going to lie,” Pena said. “I knew he could do it too because his pitches were working really well today.”

Moran fouled off the first three pitches before the Pirates rookie lined a clean single well over the head of second baseman Kolten Wong into right field.

“I was just trying to get a pitch somewhere near the middle of the plate,” Moran said. “And luckily, I got one I could do something with. Obviously, it was cool with the crowd standing on their feet.”

The hit signaled the end for Wacha, and the 26-year-old was pulled after 111 pitches — 119 is his career high. The crowd of 44,432 at Busch Stadium gave Wacha a standing ovation, and he received hugs from his teammates in the dugout.

St. Louis manager Mike Matheny had Wacha remain on the mound a little longer than usual so the fans could continue their cheers.

“I wanted to make sure he stood there and enjoyed it,” Matheny said. “The crowd didn’t disappoint. These are things you’ll never forget.”

Reliever Jordan Hicks gave up one hit while getting the last three outs.

Marcell Ozuna hit a grand slam on the eighth pitch of the game from Nick Kingham (2-2). In April, Kingham took a perfect game into the seventh inning against St. Louis in his big league debut before it was broken up.

The Cardinals have won three of four. Pittsburgh has lost three of four.

Wacha has allowed two runs or less in his last nine starts. He was the MVP of the 2013 NL Championship Series and an All-Star in 2015 before he was slowed by injuries. He made only had 24 starts in 20016 because of a shoulder inflammation.

There already have been three no-nos this year. Oakland’s Sean Manaea began baseball’s no-hit parade with a gem against Boston on April 21, four Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers combined to blank San Diego on May 4, and Seattle’s James Paxton threw one against Toronto on May 8.

Matt Carpenter drew a leadoff walk in the first, Tommy Pham singled and Jose Martinez reached on an error by shortstop Sean Rodriguez. Ozuna then hit his fourth career-grand slam.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: INF Jung Ho Kang hit a grand slam for Class A Bradenton on Saturday. Kang is on major league baseball’s restricted list.

Cardinals: C Yadier Molina is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday. He suffered a pelvic injury with traumatic hematoma on May 5. Molina went 0-for-1 with a sacrificed fly in a rehab appearance for Class AA Springfield on Saturday.

UP NEXT

Pirates: RHP Joe Musgrove (2-0, 0.64) will face the Dodgers on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

Cardinals: Carlos Martinez (3-2, 1.62) will start the first of a three-game series at home against Miami RHP Jose Urena (0-7. 4.41) on Tuesday. Martinez is coming off the 10-day disabled list.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Kolten Wong has a flair for the dramatic.

Wong led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a home run off Richard Rodriguez, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

“You see guys that in those big situations tend to have the ability to get it done,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “You really don’t want guys going up there thinking home run because that normally ends up a pop up on the infield, but whatever Kolten’s doing I’m not going to get in the way. If he’s thinking home run, keep thinking it in those situations.”

Austin Meadows had tied the score in the top half with a home run off Bud Norris (2-1), who blew a save for the first time in 12 chances.

Wong homered on a slider from Rodriguez (1-2), his second game-ending homer this season and the fourth of his big league career. Pittsburgh lost for the sixth time in eight games and has lost four of its last five games against the Cardinals.

It was Wong’s first homer since May 18 and fourth this season.

“He’s got such quick hands, he necessarily doesn’t have to cheat,” Matheny said. “It’s when he’s timed up and he timed everything up there and the ball jumped for him.”

Marcell Ozuna homered in the second, the 100th of his career and first in 105 plate appearances at Busch Stadium with the Cardinals. Colin Moran tied the score in the fifth with his first home run since May 22, connecting on a changeup from Luke Weaver.

Tommy Pham, in a 3-for-41 slide, put the Cardinals back ahead with an RBI single in the bottom half.

Weaver needed 90 pitches to get through five innings, allowing four hits.

Pirates starter Chad Kuhl gave up four hits in six innings.

“We’ve had some good swings,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve had some battles in the box, done some good base running, made some good defensive plays. I think the big picture is this team likes to fight and they like to play. They bounce back well.”

DEBUT

Austin Gomber, a 24-year-old left-hander, pitched three scoreless innings for St. Louis in his major league debut. A fourth-round draft pick in 2014, he replaced Weaver and walked Meadows, struck out Starling Marte and got Josh Bell to ground into a double play. Gomber retired his next six batters in order.

“I was just taking it batter by batter, just enjoying the moment, taking it in and trying to do my best,” Gomber said.

Gomber gave a boost to an overworked bullpen.

“We had a few guys down that we couldn’t go to today,” Matheny said. “It was a tough call bringing Luke out early. Fortunately, Austin came in and really was impressive.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: INF Jung Ho Kang (restricted list) began a minor league assignment with Class A Bradenton on Friday and went 0 for 3 with a pair of walks and a run scored.

Cardinals: C Yadier Molina (pelvic surgery) was to start a rehab assignment at Double-A Springfield on Saturday night.

UP NEXT

Cardinals RHP Michael Wacha (6-1, 2.71 ERA) and Pirates RHP Nick Kingham (2-1, 3.75 ERA) are to start Sunday’s series finale. Wacha gave up a season-low two hits against Milwaukee on Tuesday and has held opponents to two runs or fewer in eight straight starts. Kingham made his major league debut against St. Louis on April 20, retiring his first 20 batters before Paul DeJong’s single.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Just like his teammates, Jameson Taillon had been struggling after a strong start to the season.

The promising young Pirates right-hander put it all back together Friday night.

Taillon pitched three-hit ball over eight innings and Pittsburgh beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 on Friday night for its second win in its past seven games.

“I just kind of blacked out and executed my pitches,” Taillon said.

Pittsburgh had lost three straight to St. Louis during a 3-10 stretch, mostly against NL Central opponents.

Taillon (3-4) hadn’t won since April 8, when he one-hit the Cincinnati Reds in a 5-0 win. He was nearly as good this time against St. Louis, striking out six and walking one to slim his ERA to 3.97.

“This was a good one, man,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of good ones (in the majors). I know I have the ability of pitching deep in the games. I know I have the ability of turning the lineup over three or four times.

“Now, it’s about consistency and showing I can do it more often.”

St. Louis has dropped three of five. Miles Mikolas (6-1) gave up two runs — one earned — in six innings. He allowed six hits, struck out two and walked one. This was his first loss since returning to the U.S. following a stint in the Japanese professional league.

“We talk about giving us a chance for the offense to do something,” Cardinal manager Mike Matheny said. “He’s been really good all season, and that was one of those games you’d think that he had held them down enough for us to make something happen but their guy was really good.”

Adam Frazier, who was penciled in at second base late after Josh Harrison was scratched from the original lineup with flu-like symptoms, doubled in the third and tripled in the fifth before scoring Pittsburgh’s first two runs. His double ricocheted off Mikolas’ left foot and bounced into shallow left field. He scored on Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly.

It was more than enough for Taillon, who got 15 groundball outs.

“He was pumping the zone,” Frazier said. “Pitches were down, right on the corners. Not many misses tonight.”

Francisco Cervelli followed Frazier’s triple with his own to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

Pittsburgh tacked on two more runs in the eighth on an RBI double by Corey Dickerson and a sacrifice fly from Colin Moran.

Marcell Ozuna had two of the three hits off Taillon, both infield singles. Dexter Fowler also had a single.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: IF Jung Ho Kang played his first U.S. game in more than a year with Class A Bradenton. Kang, 31, is currently on the Major League Baseball’s restricted list after missing the 2017 season following his third DUI arrest in his native South Korea in December 2016. Kang was not permitted to enter the U.S. until he was issued a work visa in late April. He went 0 for 3 with two walks and two strikeouts.

Cardinals: C Yadier Molina is scheduled to make rehab starts for Double-A Springfield on Saturday and Sunday. He expects to return to the Cardinals for their Tuesday game with Milwaukee. Molina suffered a pelvic injury with a traumatic hematoma on May 5 that required emergency surgery.

UP NEXT:

Pirates RHP Chad Kuhl (4-3, 3.94) will face Cardinals RHP Luke Weaver (3-5, 4.63) Saturday in the third game of a four-game set. Kuhl is looking for his first win since May 6. He lost his last outing, which followed three consecutive no decisions. Weaver has dropped three straight decisions and four of his past five.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yairo Munoz hit a three-run, game-ending homer to cap St. Louis’ five-run ninth inning and rally the Cardinals to a 10-8 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.

Munoz ripped the first pitch from closer Felipe Vazquez (2-2) over the wall in center field to give St. Louis its sixth walk-off win of the season.

Francisco Cervelli hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the eighth to give the Pirates an 8-5 lead. However, Pittsburgh couldn’t hold on and lost in St. Louis for the fifth straight time and 12th in the last 14.

Josh Bell also homered for the Pirates

Munoz, who drove in five runs, had a two-run single in the first inning.

Luke Voit, called up from Triple-A Memphis earlier in the day, started the ninth-inning rally with a two-run single with the bases loaded to pull St. Louis to 8-7. Munoz followed with his homer.

Mike Mayers (2-0), also recalled earlier in the day, picked up the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Greg Garcia broke a 4-4 tie with a run-scoring hit in the fifth off Trevor Williams, who allowed five runs and nine hits over five innings.

Dexter Fowler also drove in two runs in the four-run first.

St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty gave up four runs and seven hits over five innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: RHP Ivan Nova, placed on the 10-day disabled list with a sprained right ring finger on Monday, will likely pitch in a simulated game before returning to the rotation. RHP Nick Kingham (2-1, 3.75) will start in Nova’s spot on Sunday.

Cardinals: RHP Alex Reyes was placed on the 10-day disabled list Thursday with a right latissimus dorsi strain after tossing four scoreless innings on Wednesday in Milwaukee. Cardinals vice president and general manager Michael Girsch indicated Reyes will miss at least two starts and likely more. “It is significant,” Girsch said. … The Cardinals recalled LHP Austin Gomber, RHP Mayers and INF Voit from Triple-A Memphis on Thursday. RHP John Gant and OF Tyler O’Neill were optioned to Memphis.

REHAB CENTRAL

St. Louis C Yadier Molina will make a rehab start for Double-A Springfield on Saturday. Molina suffered a pelvic injury with a traumatic hematoma on May 5. … Cardinals RHP Carlos Martinez gave up two runs and five hits in four innings for Springfield in a rehab start against Corpus Christi on Thursday. He stuck out four and threw 63 pitches.

UP NEXT

Pirates RHP Jameson Taillon (2-4, 4.53) will face the Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas (6-0, 2.58) in the second game of the four-game series on Friday. Taillon is 1-1 with a 4.45 ERA in six career starts against St. Louis. Mikolas is 4-0 with a 3.13 ERA in four starts against Central Division foes this season.

— Associated Press —