Lance Lynn learned a lot from his 18-day stint in the St. Louis bullpen.

Lynn, making his second start since an Aug. 25 demotion, tossed 6 1-3 innings and David Freese and Yadier Molina both hit their 20th home run of the season to lead the Cardinals to a 5-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals, who have won seven straight against Houston, moved two games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the race for the second wild card in the National League. Milwaukee is 2 1-2 games back.

St. Louis has won three straight for the first time since a four-game streak from Aug. 21-24.

The Cardinals have five players with at least 20 homers for the first time in franchise history. Carlos Beltran (29), Matt Holliday (27) and Allen Craig (21) already hit the milestone.

Lynn (16-7) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked two in a 102-pitch stint. It was his second successive strong effort since posting a 6.56 ERA in five August starts.

”I got away from what I was all about early on in the season,” Lynn said. ”I got off track, and tried to start nibbling and throwing breaking pitches.

”Now, I’m going right after hitters and it’s making all my stuff better.”

Lynn is 2-0 with 12 strikeouts, four walks and one earned run in 12 1-3 innings since his return.

Lynn, who leads a talented staff in wins, retired nine straight batters after Jose Altuve’s double to start the game. The All-Star was removed from the rotation after an Aug. 24 outing in which he gave up four earned in two innings at Cincinnati. He made six appearances in the bullpen before returning to the rotation last Thursday at Los Angeles. He gave up one run and five hits in six innings of a 2-1 win.

Manager Mike Matheny believes Lynn has returned to the rotation a smarter and more aggressive pitcher.

”He didn’t go down to the bullpen and sulk, he tried to make himself better,” Matheny said. ”I think he learned a lot about his demeanor. He shortened up his mechanics, really tightened everything up.”

Molina said Lynn was at his early season form. Lynn was 8-1 through the first two months of the season.

”He was outstanding, he was keeping the ball down and he was aggressive,” Molina said.

Freese hit a two-run homer off Lucas Harrell (10-10) in the second inning. Harrell, winless in six starts, gave up three runs and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one.

”They have some guys that can hit the ball and you just want to work hard and try and get through the game,” Harrell said.

Craig led off the second with a single to set the stage for Freese’s shot. The Cardinals are 16-3 when Freese homers.

Molina homered in the fourth with one out to push St. Louis’ lead to 3-0.

The 20 homers for Freese and Molina are both career highs.

”If you are a guy that’s trying to solidify himself, that’s the number that I think everybody else looks at,” Freese said of the 20-homer mark. ”It’s nice to get to that number. We’ve got a good number of guys that have 20 or more. It’s fun to be a part of.”

Molina was pleased to get to the magical plateau.

”I can’t lie, it’s feels so good,” he said.

Houston interim manager Tony DeFrancesco was impressed with Molina’s game-calling skills as well as his new-found power.

”He’s proven that he’s one of the best players in the game right now both offensively and defensively,” he said.

Jason Motte recorded his 37th save in 44 opportunities. Motte entered the game in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and one out, and ended it by striking out Chris Synder and Jimmy Paredes. Mitchell Boggs had struck out the side in the eighth on 12 pitches.

The Cardinals tacked on two runs in the eighth on successive hits by Jon Jay, Beltran and Holliday, and a sacrifice fly by Craig.

— Associated Press —

St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny believes Kyle Lohse belongs in the NL Cy Young conversation.

Helping the World Series champions get to the postseason will do for now.

The right-hander threw seven scoreless innings for his 15th victory and contributed an RBI double as the Cardinals beat the Houston Astros 4-1 Tuesday night to stay in front for the second NL wild card.

”He was in position to have many more wins than 15 right now,” Matheny said. ”He’s thriving on being that guy for us, to really set the bar for the rest of the starters.

”If we would have been able to hold some of the leads that he had, there’s no question he’d be right at the top of that mix,” Matheny added.

Fernando Abad (0-5) had a career-best six strikeouts in the Astros’ 100th loss. They’re 8-8 this month under interim manager Tony DeFrancesco and need nine wins in the final 14 games to avoid topping last season’s franchise-record 106 losses.

DeFrancesco is hindered by a roster filled with prospects.

”When I got the job it was already where it was at,” DeFrancesco said. ”We know what’s on the field. We know what direction the team is going, and we’re excited about our future.”

Excited about Wednesday, too.

”We know what’s on their mind over there, to get that second wild-card spot,” cleanup man Justin Maxwell said. ”If we can do our job and win games, we can definitely be the spoilers.”

Daniel Descalso got a key early RBI and Jon Jay had two hits and two RBIs for the Cardinals, coming off a 2-5 trip. But they have a favorable upcoming schedule with the next eight against lowly Houston and Chicago. With 14 games to play, the defending World Series champions are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Dodgers, rained out at Washington, and 2 1/2 games ahead of the Brewers.

Lohse (15-3) matched his season best for victories set in 2008 with St. Louis, on his fourth attempt while stranding two runners in the third and seventh. A .281 career hitter entering the season, he raised his average this year to .100 with his third RBI on a bouncer over drawn-in third baseman Matt Dominguez.

It was hit first extra-base hit since a double Sept. 19, 2011, at Philadelphia off Roy Halladay.

”That looked like a Hall of Fame swing, didn’t it?” Lohse joked. ”It says .100 up there and I’m just glad it’s there instead of lower.

”A positive thing is when it’s in the 80s it doesn’t go down much every time you make an out.”

Due for free agency after the season, Lohse leads the majors with a winning percentage of .833 and is among the National League leaders with a 2.71 ERA.

”It’s easy to just concentrate on what I’m doing,” Lohse said. ”I try to take that focus every fifth day. If I’m worried about numbers, what could have been, or … contracts, none of that matters to me.”

Abad allowed three runs in five innings, the longest of his five career starts – all this year – and is 1-10 with a 5.12 ERA in parts of three seasons with Houston. Brett Wallace had an RBI single off Mitchell Boggs in the eighth.

The Cardinals had four extra-base hits, three of them in succession with one out in the fifth. Pete Kozma tripled, Lohse doubled and Jay doubled to make it 3-0.

They missed a chance for more when Carlos Beltran struck out and Jay was thrown out at third. It was the second time one of St. Louis’ best hitters whiffed in the clutch and Astros catcher Jason Castro turned it into a double play. Matt Holliday struck out and Jay was thrown out at second to end the first.

Yadier Molina singled with one out in the second and scored on a two-out single by Descalso, who had been batting just .104 with runners in scoring position (8 for 77) on the year and was 1 for 16 on the trip. Descalso batted .294 with runners in scoring position as a rookie.

”We saw last year that guy can produce in those situations,” Matheny said. ”It’s just a matter of trusting himself, getting a couple to fall in for in for him and hopefully he goes on a tear.”

Jason Motte worked the ninth for his 36th save in 43 chances.

— Associated Press —

Jon Jay was having a miserable time at the plate until the 12th inning, when he hit a clutch RBI double that made he and his teammates forget all the ugly at-bats that preceded it.

The go-ahead hit sparked a three-run rally for the St. Louis Cardinals, who earned a split of their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-2 victory Sunday and regained undisputed possession of the second NL wild-card spot.

”It was a long one and both teams fought hard,” Jay said after the 4-hour, 25-minute marathon. ”Everyone knows what’s at stake right now and we’ve got our work cut out for us.

”We haven’t been playing too well lately, but we’ve been playing hard. Today we came up with a win on getaway day and it put us back up again. That’s huge. But every game from here on out is our most important game. We’ve been there before, so we know what we’ve got to do. It’s just a matter of doing it.”

John Ely (0-2), the ninth of a franchise-record 10 pitchers used by Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, issued a leadoff walk to Matt Carpenter and Jay drove him in from second base with a line drive into the right field corner on an 0-2 changeup.

”Jon had an uncharacteristic day for himself up to that point, but he’s been very good this season and filled a big hole for us in the leadoff spot. And today he came through with one of the biggest hits of our year right now,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”We had a tough time today. You look at that scoreboard and all those Ks, I mean, we had a lot of strikeouts (15), so we just needed somebody to step up.”

Jay finished the 2-5 trip 4 for 32 with two RBIs. He struck out his first three times up Sunday and was 1 for 6.

”You’ve got to stay positive, and that’s what I tried to do all day,” Jay said. ”I tried not to let my other at-bats bother me. I was happy I got a chance to do something to help the team and it worked out. He’s got a good changeup, and I was just hoping he’d leave something out over the plate. He did, and I was able to capitalize on it.”

Jay scored the second run of the inning on an infield hit up the middle by Allen Craig, and the final one came in on Ely’s bases-loaded walk to Yadier Molina.

Rookie Shelby Miller (1-0) pitched one inning for his first major league victory. Jason Motte got three outs for his 35th save in 42 chances after giving up the tying and winning runs in Saturday night’s 4-3 loss.

”If you have a bad day, you want to get back out there and move past the last outing. And I was able to do that today,” Motte said. ”After something like that, you have to have a short memory because you really don’t have a choice. If you re-live every pitch and every out over again every single day, you’ll drive yourself insane. I just looked at the video yesterday after the game to see what I did and didn’t do.”

Both teams have 15 games remaining to settle the wild-card situation. The Cardinals’ next nine games are against the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, who are a combined 81 games under .500 and 69 1-2 games out of first place. The Dodgers embark on a nine-game trip against East-leading Washington, Central-leading Cincinnati and San Diego before ending the regular season with a six-game homestand against Colorado and West-leading San Francisco.

”We’ve really been a pretty good road club until that last trip, and we’re going to have our hands full again,” Mattingly said.

The Dodgers won six of the 11 meetings with St. Louis, and have beaten the Cardinals in consecutive season series for the first time since 1995-96. In case of a tie for the wild card, the Dodgers would get home-field advantage in a one-game playoff.

”We’re just taking it one game at a time, and we’ve got a great chance of being there right at the end,” Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp said. ”We’re going to be in every game and fight to the end, no matter who we play. We’ve got a tough road trip coming up, and we’ll see what happens. We’ve got to turn the page and get ready for Washington.”

Los Angeles wasted a leadoff double in the sixth by Kemp, who flied out to center field against Fernando Salas with the bases loaded to end the 10th after the right-hander intentionally walked Andre Ethier.

”I have all the respect for all their hitters,” Matheny said. ”But that particular situation set itself up to get us a little more freedom against Kemp because we didn’t have to worry about righty against lefty. So it worked out well.”

Ethier tied the score 2-all in the third with his 19th homer, getting the barrel of the bat on a 2-0 pitch that was low and inside and driving it into the pavilion seats in right-center with two outs after a leadoff walk to Matt Treanor.

Right-hander Stephen Fife, making his fourth major league start and first since Aug. 1 in place of injured Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, recorded his first six outs on strikeouts. But in-between the first and second ones, the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead as Craig hit an RBI double and Matt Holliday scored on a wild pitch to Molina.

Molina walked, then stole second while David Freese swung at a third strike. Treanor, making his first start behind the plate since Sept. 2, got out of his crouch and headed for the dugout, thinking it was the third out before realizing his mistake. Fife’s 31-pitch inning finally ended on a called third strike that had Skip Schumaker fuming at umpire Dana DeMuth.

Fife threw 88 pitches over five innings, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out nine – two more than he had in his other three outings combined.

— Associated Press —

Another day, another loss, and more frustration for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Unlike last year when a tremendous stretch run lifted St. Louis to the NL wild-card berth and, ultimately, the World Series title, the Cardinals are sinking fast.

Clayton Richard pitched seven strong innings and rookie Yasmani Grandal singled home the go-ahead run as the San Diego Padres handed slumping St. Louis its 11th loss in 15 games, 3-2 on Wednesday.

The Cardinals began the day with a one-game lead over Los Angeles for the second NL wild card. The Dodgers, who played later at Arizona, host St. Louis in a crucial four-game series starting Thursday night.

“We can’t depend on the other teams to keep losing,” Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse said. “We have to take care of our own business. We have a big series coming up.”

But the Cardinals need to find answers in a hurry. They have lost eight of their last nine road games and are in the midst of playing 13 of 16 away from home.

“We’re going through a rough stretch, but at the same time, we’re still in the hunt,” said right fielder Matt Carpenter, who homered but hurt his club with a key error.

Carpenter’s misplay on Cameron Maybin’s double in the fifth allowed an unearned run to score.

“I was trying to be aggressive and trying to get around where I could keep him from getting a double,” Carpenter said. “The ball just got past me and I turned one bad play into another one by missing the cutoff.”

“It’s unacceptable,” he added. “Those are the kind of things that cost you games. It just wasn’t a good play.”

Carpenter came back and hit a two-run homer off Richard (13-12) in the sixth to tie the game at 2.

St. Louis put a runner on third with one out in the ninth but was unable to score. World Series MVP David Freese and pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker both grounded out.

Last season, St. Louis went 23-9 down the stretch to capture the wild-card slot. But this team has played the complete opposite in the final weeks.

“Overall, it doesn’t matter (how hard the team plays) because it all comes down to whether you win,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “They are still aware of the sense of urgency.”

Logan Forsythe hit a solo home run for the Padres, who completed a three-game sweep of St. Louis for the first time since August 1995.

“I take it personally as a compliment to our players that we’re able to do that,” manager Bud Black said.

San Diego has an NL-best 17-5 record since Aug. 19 and has taken 21 of its last 27 games at home.

“It’s exciting when we are winning and playing good baseball like we are,” Richard said.

Richard (13-12) outpitched Lohse and gave up only three hits. The left-hander struck out five, walked one and hit a batter with a pitch.

Luke Gregerson pitched the ninth for his seventh save, working around a leadoff double by Allen Craig. After pinch runner Adron Chambers was sacrificed to third, Gregerson got Freese on a grounder to third before walking pinch hitter Carlos Beltran. Gregerson then retired Schumaker on an easy grounder to first base to end the game.

Lohse (14-3) had his eight-game winning streak snapped as he allowed three runs — two earned — on five hits over six innings. He struck out eight.

“He was sharp right from the beginning,” Matheny said. “These are the ones we have to take advantage of.”

Lohse’s streak spanned 13 starts back to June 26.

Forsythe connected with two outs in the second to give San Diego a 1-0 lead. In his last 13 games, Forsythe has 11 RBIs and 11 runs while raising his batting average 29 points to .289.

Yonder Alonso singled in the fifth and went to third on Maybin’s one-out double into the right-field corner. But when Carpenter overran the ball, Alonso scored.

Carpenter homered immediately after Jon Jay’s leadoff single in the sixth, but San Diego went ahead in the bottom half on Chase Headley’s two-out double and Grandal’s run-scoring single.

— Associated Press —

R.A. Dickey had more than enough to hold off the St. Louis Cardinals and become the first pitcher in the majors to reach 18 wins this season.

He didn’t have his best stuff, but still managed to strengthen his case in the NL Cy Young Award race.

Dickey was backed by Ike Davis’ three-run homer that powered the New York Mets to a 6-2 victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday.

The knuckleballer allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings en route to his 18th win, the first Mets pitcher to reach the mark since Frank Viola (20-12) and Dwight Gooden (19-7) both did it in 1990. Dickey (18-4) gave up eight hits and struck out five to help New York salvage a win to close out the three-game series.

“It was a battle for me,” Dickey said. “I didn’t really have a great feel for (the knuckleball) early on. I threw a couple of more fastballs than I ordinarily would have.

“I’m pleased with the results, but obviously I have a little bit of work to do.”

Dickey should have five more starts as he tries to become a 20-game winner, which would further bolster his Cy Young resume. Considering where Dickey was just a few years ago — in the minors trying to refine his knuckleball — Mets manager Terry Collins said it has been an incredible journey.

“The whole story of what he’s had to go through to get where he is today is truly one of the great stories of sports,” Collins said. “I’m thrilled. I hope he wins it (the Cy Young). But if he doesn’t, he’s certainly had a storybook season.”

For now, Dickey says he is focusing simply on getting win No. 19, but he can’t help think about reaching 20, too.

“Obviously, I hope for that,” Dickey said. “I hope to win beyond 20. As far as getting to that plateau, it would be really satisfying, I think.”

Davis gave the Mets a 5-1 lead with his 26th homer, and Daniel Murphy went 3-for-4 to lift his average in day games to an NL-best .351 (65 for 185). Josh Thole and Andres Torres had RBI singles, and Lucas Duda drove in the Mets’ other run with a bases-loaded walk.

The Mets did most of their damage off of Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright (13-12), who allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings.

“I’d say he wasn’t as sharp as he would like to be,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. “His game revolves around establishing his fastball, and he just didn’t have that tight fastball command today.”

However, Wainwright delivered the Cardinals’ first run when he led off the third inning with a home run against Dickey. It was Wainwright’s first homer of the season and the sixth in his major league career.

Former first-round pick Shelby Miller was much more effective for the Cardinals. Making his Major League debut, Miller struck out four in two innings of scoreless relief, including fanning the side in the seventh.

After Wainwright’s homer cut the Mets’ advantage to 2-1, New York stretched its lead in the fifth on Davis’ shot.

“The average isn’t going to be there,” said Davis, who is hitting just .224 this season. “I’m just trying to help the team, and when I hit a home run, that helps the team.”

Mike Baxter led off the fifth with a single and went to third one out later on Murphy’s single. They scored on Davis’ drive over the right field fence.

— Associated Press —

Jaime Garcia has always been a better pitcher at Busch Stadium than on the road. The New York Mets saw just how much better the lefty can be.

Garcia carried a shutout into the eighth inning and Yadier Molina got his 1,000th career hit with an infield single that started a three-run second against rookie Matt Harvey in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 5-1 victory Tuesday night.

For his career, Garcia is 18-11 with a 2.42 ERA at home, and 13-11 with a 4.59 ERA on the road. The disparity is more than three earned runs per game this year, 2.63 vs. 5.80.

“You don’t ignore trends. Statistics are what they are, it’s data,” manager Mike Matheny said. “But there’s no great explanation for it because he has good stuff.

“He has better than good stuff — he has great stuff.”

Asked twice about the comforts of home after the game, Garcia had little to offer.

“It’s part of the game sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes, you feel good at home. But I don’t know.”

Daniel Descalso and David Freese had two hits and an RBI apiece for the Cardinals, who are 42-26 at home for the second-best mark in the National League. St. Louis will go for a three-game sweep Wednesday with Adam Wainwright facing 17-game winner R.A. Dickey.

The defending World Series champions have a slim lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL’s second wild card.

Descalso botched a double-play grounder in the eighth but also stole third in the sixth, putting him in position to score on John Jay’s groundout against Justin Hampson that made it 4-0.

Pinch-hitter Mike Baxter hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Lance Lynn in the eighth. Left fielder Adron Chambers, who ran for Matt Holliday in the seventh, caught Daniel Murphy’s drive at the left-field wall to end the threat and then bounced into the fence in front of the visitors’ bullpen.

“That’s that football coming out of me,” said Chambers, a former defensive back at Southern Mississippi. “I was glad I was able to make that play, give me another opportunity to see what I can do.”

Holliday left the game with lower back tightness after walking to start the seventh. The Cardinals said Holliday, among the league leaders with 92 RBIs, was day to day.

“It just tightened up,” Matheny said. “So we’ll re-evaluate tomorrow.”

Garcia (4-6) gave up an unearned run in 7 1/3 innings for his first victory in five decisions since May 16 and first in four starts since coming off the disabled list. He was sidelined for 64 games by a shoulder strain.

In two home starts since then he’s allowed one run in 15 1/3 innings while going 0-2 on the road and giving up 10 runs in 11 1/3 innings. Garcia is 2-2 at home with a 2.63 ERA this year and 2-4 with a 5.80 ERA on the road.

Molina got a prolonged ovation after barely beating David Wright’s throw on a slow roller up the third base line for his milestone hit. The Cardinals added three more singles by Freese, Skip Schumaker and Descalso to open the inning.

“He hung a couple of breaking balls up,” Mets manager Terry Collins said about Harvey. “They spray it around. They’re a good-hitting club.”

That was the only spot of trouble for Harvey, the Mets’ 2010 first-round draft pick, whose five-inning stint matched the shortest of his eight career starts. His string of four consecutive quality starts was the Mets’ best in a single season by a rookie since Jae Seo had six straight in 2003.

“I’m not happy about it,” Harvey said. “I’ve got to go out there, go deeper in the game. I’ve got to get quicker outs, keep the pitch counts down, and I didn’t do that tonight.

“I should have been better.”

Harvey (3-4) has thrown 157 1/3 innings this season, including 110 for Triple-A Buffalo, and may have only one left because the Mets don’t want to overload the 24-year-old right-hander. They have scored just 16 runs while Harvey was in the game.

Collins said the Mets haven’t made a final decision on Harvey’s workload, but added: “There’s not going to be many more.”

— Associated Press —

The St. Louis Cardinals took another step toward a playoff spot, thanks to a misstep by the New York Mets.

Andres Torres lost an apparent leadoff double in the ninth inning when he was called out for missing first base, and the Cardinals held off the Mets 5-4 Monday.

“I’ve never seen it called. Not in the big leagues like that,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.

Cardinals closer Jason Motte tied a career high by getting a five-out save. The wild card-contending Cardinals’ position improved when first base umpire Dave Rackley ruled Torres missed the bag and called him out on an appeal.

“He went over the front corner with his toe and it just kicked dirt up onto the base,” Rackley said.

Rackley said he wouldn’t make that call if he weren’t sure.

“That’s what I told Terry. I wouldn’t make that up,” Rackley said.

Crew chief Dale Scott said the umpires watched televised replays afterward and agreed the call was correct.

“It was exactly what (Rackley) described. His foot went over, the toes hit the ground, the heel never did,” Scott said. “And did you see where (Rackley) was? He was right there to make the call.”

Torres was standing on second after hitting a ball down the right-field line. Instead, he returned to the dugout.

“That’s not happened in my career,” Motte said. “It’s one out and nobody on rather than no one out and a guy on second. They can bunt him over, they have a lot of options right there.”

“It definitely changes that inning,” he said.

Torres insisted he ran the bases right.

“I just touched the base with my heel,” Torres said. “I never thought he was going to call me out, to be honest. What can I say? Nobody’s perfect.”

Collins came out to argue the play, to no avail.

“I get back to the bench, and I got 10 guys telling me he touched the bag,” Collins said.

Cardinals star Carlos Beltran, who was on the bench, told manager Mike Matheny to make the appeal.

“We’re saying our MVP is Carlos Beltran, who never hit the field,” Matheny said.

Said Beltran: “I was in the cage and watching him running. He was looking at the ball and not the bag. I saw sand coming up around the bag area and told them let’s try to throw to first.”

Rookie Joe Kelly (5-6) pitched 6 2/3 effective innings and also doubled for the Cardinals.

Kelly allowed five hits and two runs. He made his second start after a brief stint in the bullpen, and turned in his longest outing of the season.

Edward Mujica got the last out of the seventh, giving him 16 straight scoreless appearances since coming over from Miami at the trade deadline.

Skip Schumaker hit a solo homer and Matt Carpenter drove in two runs for St. Louis. Yadier Molina and Allen Craig added RBI singles and Kelly scored a run.

Daniel Murphy and Kelly Shoppach hit two-run homers for New York, which had won three straight and seven of eight.

Collin McHugh (0-1), recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to make the start, lasted just four innings and gave up four runs.

“These guys fought and scratched all game and I put us in a pretty deep hole early on,” McHugh said.

McHugh blanked the Colorado Rockies for seven innings Aug. 23 in his major league debut.

It took the Cardinals just two batters to give McHugh an ERA. Jon Jay led off with a triple into the left-field corner and Carpenter followed with an RBI groundout.

The Cardinals got two more in the third and Schumaker’s first home run leading off the fourth made it 4-0.

Kelly had retired 10 batters in a row before walking Mike Baxter and then allowing Shoppach’s homer in the seventh.

New York closed within a run on Murphy’s homer off reliever Mitchell Boggs in the eighth. The Mets had the tying run at second with one out later in the inning when Motte got Scott Hairston on a soft liner and struck out Shoppach.

— Associated Press —

Stephen Strasburg returned to dominant, strike-throwing form against St. Louis after struggling in his last start. According to his manager, the All-Star ace will have two more opportunities at being “vintage Strasburg” this season.

Strasburg allowed two hits over six scoreless innings, striking out nine before being pulled Sunday as the Washington Nationals beat the Cardinals 4-3.

The NL East-leading Nationals took three of four from St. Louis and passed their 80-win total from last season.

Strasburg, rocked for seven runs last Tuesday at Miami, left with a 2-0 lead and a 2.94 ERA. He threw 97 pitches and wound up with a no-decision.

“I think he had another inning in his tank, but I didn’t want to run it up, maybe cost him a start,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “He was outstanding. … He was vintage Strasburg today.”

The 23-year-old Strasburg has struck out a league-leading 195 in 156 1-3 innings this season. The Nationals have repeatedly stated they intend on shutting him down in his first full season since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2010.

Johnson stuck with the party line after the win while providing a firmer timeline than the club has to date.

“I think two starts, unless I let him pitch 10 (innings) in the next one out, which I’m not going to do,” Johnson said. “I think his last start will be on the 12th.”

The Nationals play at the New York Mets on Sept. 12, not that Strasburg is thinking that far in advance. He is scheduled to face Miami at home on Sept. 7

“I’m just focused on the next start,” Strasburg said. “We’re going to have a sit down and talk here soon.”

The Nationals have been vague about an innings limit, but the team sat Jordan Zimmermann at 161 1-3 innings last season in a similar situation.

“When we feel that he’s had enough in and around that area of innings, and we take into account all the things we’ve talked about taking into account, stressful innings, pitches, and that type of thing, then we’ll make that decision and shut him down,” said Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, acknowledging he has yet to have that sit down with Strasburg.

“I don’t think he’s going to fight me on it, I think he’s going to be unhappy about it, I know he’ll be unhappy about it. He is an ultimate competitor, but we’ve taken that out of his hands,” he said. “We’ve made (a decision) five months ago and we’re going to stick to it.”

For his part Strasburg added, “I’m in with these guys. We still have a long way to go. I’m going to fight with them to the end.”

Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa produced two-out RBI singles in the seventh that lifted Washington. Kurt Suzuki homered and drove in two runs for the Nationals.

The Cardinals rallied in the seventh after Strasburg left with three hits against reliever Sean Burnett, including Daniel Descalso’s two-run homer.

Washington responded with four consecutive two-out singles against Lance Lynn (13-6). Desmond’s flare to center scored pinch-runner Eury Perez with the go-ahead run. Espinosa had three of the Nationals’ 13 hits.

Ryan Mattheus (2-3) pitched 1 1-3 innings, allowing a run on Tony Cruz’s RBI double in the eighth. Tyler Clippard, the worked the ninth for his 29th save.

Lynn pitched one inning, allowing two runs on four hits for the Cardinals, who have lost five of six while trying to hold off Pittsburgh for the final NL wild-card berth.

Facing the Cardinals for the first time, Strasburg gave up Matt Holliday’s two-out double in the first. The All-Star ace held St. Louis without another hit until Holliday’s sixth-inning single.

“I just settled in a little bit,” Strasburg said. “That’s just getting out there, feeling your way through the first couple of innings. When you’ve got your pitches working, it’s just attack.”

Attack he did, fanning at least two hitters in four innings and regained the NL strikeout lead by whiffing St. Louis pitcher Jake Westbrook in the fifth. Strasburg walked one overall.

“Strasburg did a great job of holding us down,” said Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay, twice a strikeout victim in three at-bats against Strasburg. “He had a good fastball and changeup. He kept us off-balance.”

Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman’s throwing error, a walk and a wild pitch put runners on the corners with one out in the fourth. Holliday attempted to score the game’s first run on Bryan Anderson’s shallow fly ball to right, but Bryce Harper easily threw him out at the plate for the final out.

Usually in center, Harper shifted to right with Jayson Werth scratched from the lineup minutes before the first pitch.

Suzuki, acquired in a trade with Oakland last month, stroked his third homer on the season in the bottom half. In the sixth, he tacked on a third consecutive single against Westbrook, which scored Desmond and ended Westbrook’s day.

Westbrook allowed two runs on nine hits with six strikeouts and one walk. He avoided his third loss in four starts when Descalso, the Cardinals number eight hitter, turned on a 3-1 pitch from Burnett for his fourth home run of the season.

— Associated Press —

Bryce Harper hit his third home run in two games, Jayson Werth homered for the first time since May, and Edwin Jackson struck out 10 Thursday night as the Washington Nationals padded their NL East lead with an 8-1 win over the punchless St. Louis Cardinals.

The Nationals opened an 11-game homestand with an overwhelming performance against a wild-card contender that failed to score an earned run for the third straight game.

Jackson (8-9) was so dominant that three of his strikeouts required throws to first because the Cardinals were chasing balls in the dirt.

The victory moved the Nationals 5 1/2 games ahead of idle Atlanta.

Jaime Garcia (3-6) allowed six runs for the Cardinals, whose streak of 28 scoreless innings ended in the eighth.

— Associated Press —

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 —