PITTSBURGH (AP) – The St. Louis Cardinals stumbled against the Pirates for the second straight day, allowing home runs to Starling Marte and rookie Jordan Luplow in a stinging 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
St. Louis is now 2 1/2 games behind Colorado for the NL’s second wild card.
With the score 1-1, Pat Bostick singled against Seung Hwan Oh (1-6) leading off the fifth and Marte followed with his seventh home run. Luplow went deep an inning later off Brett Cecil.
Jameson Taillon (8-7) allowed one run and four hits in five innings. Five pitchers combined for hitless relief, with Felipe Rivero striking out two in a perfect ninth for his 19th save in 21 chances.
Matt Carpenter hit his 22nd home run for St. Louis.
St. Louis returns home Monday night to begin a four-game series against the Cubs. Luke Weaver (7-1) starts for the Cardinals while Jon Lester (11-8) goes for Chicago. Game time is 7:15 with the pre-game at 6:20 on KTLO-AM.
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