ST. LOUIS (AP) — Randal Grichuk homered in his return to the majors, Yadier Molina had three hits and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 on Sunday night.

Grichuk, who was sent to the minors on May 29 after struggling with consistency, had two hits — including his solo homer in the sixth inning — and scored twice. Molina, who had missed the previous two games after being hit by a foul tip on the knee, had three hits, scored three runs and drove in a run.

The Cardinals, who had lost three straight, scored four runs in the seventh to break open a tie game. Molina’s RBI single off Juan Nicasio (1-4) made it 5-4 and rookie Paul DeJong’s two-run single gave St. Louis an 8-4 lead.

Trevor Rosenthal (2-3) struck out the only batter he faced in the seventh to earn the win in relief for the Cardinals. Starter Mike Leake went six innings and allowed four runs — three earned — and six hits in six innings.

St. Louis took a 2-0 lead in the second on Greg Garcia’s two-run single, but the Pirates went up 3-2 in the third on Adam Frazier’s two-run triple and Josh Harrison’s sacrifice fly.

Pittsburgh added another run in the fourth on Elias Diaz’s sacrifice fly that scored Andrew McCutchen.

The Cardinals tied the game in the sixth on Grichuk’s homer off Pirates starter Chad Kuhl and Jedd Gyorko’s pinch-hit ground-rule RBI double. Grichuk’s 478-foot homer was the longest by a Cardinals player in the new Busch Stadium and the second-longest in stadium history. Milwaukee’s Keon Broxton crushed a 489-foot shot on June 15.

Kuhl gave up four runs and eight hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked one.

ROSTER SHUFFLE

The Cardinals placed OF Dexter Fowler (right heel spur) and LHP Kevin Siegrist (cervical spine sprain) on the disabled list and optioned OF Chad Huffman to Triple-A Memphis before the game. St. Louis recalled Grichuk and RHP Mike Mayers and purchased the contract of 1B Luke Voit from Triple-A.

MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT

Voit, who grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood, Missouri, pinch hit for the Cardinals in the seventh inning for his first major league plate appearance. He was hit in the back by a 96 mph fastball from Jhan Marinez.

Voit is from the same high school — Lafayette — as former National League MVP Ryan Howard and former World Series MVP David Freese. Freese, who was playing third base for the Pirates on Sunday night, sent Voit a congratulatory note before the game.

UP NEXT

Pirates: After an off day Monday, RHP Trevor Williams (3-3, 5.09) will make his 10th start of the season on Tuesday night against visiting Tampa Bay.

Cardinals: RHP Michael Wacha (3-3, 4.76) will face the Reds in a makeup game against visiting Cincinnati on Monday afternoon. He is 7-1 with a 2.95 ERA in 13 career starts (15 appearances) against Cincinnati.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — When it comes to taking one for the team, the Pirates can count on Josh Harrison.

Harrison was hit by a pitch to drive in a run. He also homered and scored a run after hitting a double in a 7-3 Pittsburgh victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night.

Jordy Mercer also homered and starter Gerrit Cole pitched six innings for Pittsburgh.

After getting hit by a pitch in the sixth, Harrison has been hit by a pitch five times in his last six games. He leads all major league players with 16 hit by pitches this season.

Getting hit by a pitch is part of the job, Harrison said.

“There’s only been a few this year that haven’t hurt,” said Harrison, who has reached base safely in his last 20 road games. “What I like to say `It would probably kill common man.”

Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle likes what Harrison does for the Pirates.

“He creates a wake, a positive wake out there,” Hurdle said. “He’s swinging the bat well. He’s playing good defense. All the things combined, he’s playing really good baseball. He’s a fun player to watch.”

Cole (6-6) extended his winning streak to three games, allowing five hits and one run with five strikeouts and two walks.

In Cole’s four losing starts from May 22 through June 8, he surrendered 23 runs in 19 1/3 innings. Since then, he has reeled off three solid starts. Before Saturday, he allowed just three hits and one run in seven innings in each of his previous two starts.

“I just keep doing my job,” Cole said. “You’re going to make good pitches. You’re going to make bad pitches. You’re going to get hit and you’re going to get away with some. There’s always another pitch and another day.”

Pittsburgh has won four of its last six games.

Slumping St. Louis has dropped eight of its last 11. The 33-40 start for the Cardinals is their worst since 2007.

Lance Lynn (5-5) struggled for the second consecutive start. He gave up seven runs and six hits, including three homers in 5 2/3 innings. In his previous start at Baltimore, Lynn gave up nine hits, seven runs and a season-high four home runs in 4 2/3 innings.

In his first season back after Tommy John surgery, Lynn has given up 20 home runs.

“I know if you look at it from the last two starts, that’s two in a row that you’d like back,” Lynn said. “But I got to make sure I end it at that. You’re going to go through a rut or something like that and you don’t want to do that in the season and right now I’m in that.”

Before Saturday, Lynn had not allowed a run in his past 12 innings against the Pirates. He fired seven scoreless innings in a 2-1 win against Pittsburgh on April 17 at Busch Stadium.

“He made some mistakes and we got him,” Hurdle said about Lynn. “Good for us. He’s been tough on us here.”

Pittsburgh scored in the first on a two-out RBI single by Josh Bell that scored Harrison.

St. Louis quickly tied it at 1-all on Matt Carpenter’s first leadoff homer of the season. It was Carpenter’s 13th leadoff home run of his career.

The homer marked a season-high 13 straight games in which the Cardinals have hit a home run.

The Pirates regained the lead at 3-1 on a two-run, two-out homer by Mercer. Andrew McCutchen singled before Mercer lined a fastball over the wall just inside the left field foul pole.

“He’s steady Eddie,” Hurdle said about Mercer. “He’s raised his average 80 points and now he has seven homers and 28 RBI, which is impressive from where he was from a month ago.”

A two-out solo homer by Harrison in the fifth put Pittsburgh up 4-1.

“I think today was the case of a couple of sliders that got up on him,” manager Mike Matheny said. “I actually thought he was throwing the ball well. Just a couple of mistakes that really cost him.”

The Pirates sent nine batters to the plate in the sixth and scored three runs on just one hit to chase Lynn. David Freese led off with a walk and went to third on a single by McCutchen before scoring on Mercer’s groundout. After intentionally walking Chris Stewart, Lynn walked Cole.

Rookie John Brebbia relieved and promptly hit Adam Frazier and Harrison to give Pittsburgh a 7-1 lead.

The Cardinals added two runs in the ninth off reliever Wade LeBlanc.

SATURDAY IN THE PARK

With the victory, Pittsburgh improved to 10-2 in games played on Saturday this season.

BLACK AND BLUE

Since the start of the 2013 season, Pittsburgh batters have been hit a major league-leading 374 times.

“I don’t try to make anything more of than people maybe just trying to pitch inside,” Hurdle said.

TRAINING ROOM

Pirates: RHP Josh Lindblom (left side discomfort) was activated Saturday from the DL. He remains at Triple-A Indianapolis where he had been rehabbing.

Cardinals: C Yadier Molina missed his second consecutive game. He took a foul tip off his knee on Thursday in Philadelphia.

UP NEXT

Pirates: RHP Chad Kuhl (2-6, 5.46 ERA) has not pitched more than five innings since tossing six April 8 against St. Louis, losing a 2-1 decision. Kuhl won his last outing Tuesday, a 7-3 win over Milwaukee to snap a six-game losing streak.

Cardinals: RHP Mike Leake (5-6, 3.03 ERA) has 10 wins against the Pirates, the most he has against any opponent. Leake has not won since May 24 when he pitched eight innings against Los Angeles in a 6-1 win.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Pittsburgh Pirates super-utilityman John Jaso usually has one chance to make an impression in a game. On Friday night, he made the most of a rare second chance.

Josh Bell and Jaso homered as the Pittsburgh Pirates broke their Busch Stadium hex with a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jaso, who entered as part of a double switch in the eighth inning, drove a 3-2 pitch from Seung Hwan Oh (1-4) over the wall in right-center to break a 3-3 tie in the ninth as the Pirates broke a seven-game losing streak in St. Louis.

The eventual game-winning homer came one pitch after Jaso checked his swing on a possible strike three, but third base umpire Alan Porter ruled Jaso’s bat did not break the plane of the plate.

“I definitely held up on that swing,” Jaso said. “I think it was just an intense situation so everybody was jumping around, including the crowd and everything, but, no, I didn’t go.”

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny thought the pitch itself was strike three.

“As I saw it with the naked eye it didn’t necessarily look like it, but what I’m hearing that the strikes called showed it for a strike, but it’s a strike when they call it a strike,” Matheny said.

Four of Jaso’s five home runs have come in the seventh inning or later and four broke ties.

“I try and keep everything exactly the same that way there’s no ups and downs,” Jaso said.

Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said that consistency has made Jaso into one of baseball’s best pinch-hitters.

“A lot of people get caught up in the hair,” Hurdle said referring to Jaso’s hair style. “There’s a baseball player in there. He’s a free spirit but he’s a very controlled free spirit as far as working well with the team.”

Jameson Taillon threw 104 pitches in six innings, both highs since coming back from testicular cancer surgery on June 12. Only one of the four hits the Pirates righty allowed left the infield.

“I can be a little better about pounding the zone early in counts,” Taillon said. “When I’m efficient that’s where I have success just going middle down, power sink.”

Felipe Rivero (3-1) pitched the Pirates out of a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth. Rivero worked around a ninth-inning walk to secure the win.

Bell’s homer gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Bell’s 14 home runs are the second-most by a Pirates rookie before the All-Star break since Ralph Kiner’s 15 in 1946.

David Freese walked and scored to tie it 2-2 in the fourth. Freese advanced to third on a throwing error by second baseman Paul DeJong, the seventh by the Cardinals in their last three games which have led to seven unearned runs.

Freese’s two-out RBI single off Trevor Rosenthal in the eighth tied the game 3-3. Freese has hit safely in 13 of 14 games against his former team.

Adam Wainwright got through seven innings for the third time this season and the first time since May 27. Only one of the two runs Wainwright allowed was earned after he had allowed 18 runs in his previous 5 1/3 innings.

Jose Martinez’s two-run homer, his second in three games, gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second.

DeJong’s solo home run gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead in the seventh. It was DeJong’s fourth homer in his last seven games.

WEB GEMS

Matt Carpenter made a diving stop in the first and Tommy Pham made a diving catch in the second for the Cardinals, each saving would-be singles.

Gregory Polanco made a diving catch to start a 9-3 double play for the Pirates in the sixth.

TRAINING ROOM

Pirates: C Francisco Cervelli is on the seven-day concussion DL for the second time this month.

Cardinals: OF Dexter Fowler (quadriceps) missed his second straight game. … C Yadier Molina was a late scratch after taking a foul tip off his knee on Thursday.

UP NEXT

Pirates: RHP Gerrit Cole (5-6, 4.28 ERA) has pitched at least six innings while allowing two earned runs or less in seven straight starts. He is 5-4 with a 2.84 ERA in 11 career starts against St. Louis.

Cardinals: RHP Lance Lynn (5-4, 3.33 ERA) has not allowed a run to Pittsburgh in his last 12 innings, including seven shutout innings on April 17. He is 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA in seven starts against NL Central opponents this season.

— Associated Press —