ST. LOUIS_The St. Louis Cardinals sat in their clubhouse longer than they were on the field for Saturday night's game against the Chicago Cubs.
But a 3 hour, 37 minute rain delay was worth the wait as the Cardinals broke a tie with three runs in the sixth inning and then held on to win 7-4 in a game that ended at 12:57 a.m. Sunday morning.
Six St. Louis pitchers combined to record 14 strikeouts with John Gant (4-0) recording the win and Carlos Martinez the save.
Marcell Ozuna had three hits and drove in a run. Paul Goldschmidt, Dexter Fowler and Harrison Bader hit solo home runs, the latter two coming back-to-back in the eighth inning.
Jack Flaherty pitched the first five innings but he could not continue after the long delay. The Cardinals used five relievers to get through the last four innings.
Their bullpen held up better than Chicago's. The Cardinals had eight hits after the delay to post their third consecutive win and pull within three games of Milwaukee, which moved into first place.
The game was tied 2-2 when the field was covered at 7:44 p.m. after 4 { innings.
The Cardinals opened up their lead with four hits in the sixth, including run-scoring doubles by Matt Wieters and Kolten Wong and an RBI single by Fowler.
Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward hit solo homers against Flaherty in the first two innings. He was otherwise sharp, striking out eight and retiring the last seven batters he faced.
The Cardinals scored three runs in the sixth inning to break a tie at Busch Stadium, only to see the Cubs respond with two runs in the seventh, leaving the Cards clinging to a 5-4 lead.
A double by Matt Wieters, single by Fowler and double by Wong drove in runs against Cubs reliever Tyler Chatwood.
The Cardinals turned to John Gant in relief and he turned in a scoreless sixth inning before John Brebbia allowed two runs in the seventh. David Bote's double drove in Addison Russell and Kris Bryant later drove in Bote with a fielder's choice.
After waiting out a rain delay of 3 hours 37 minutes, the Cardinals and Cubs resumed play in the bottom of the fifth inning at 11:21 p.m. with the score tied 2-2 at Busch Stadium.
Chatwood entered the game in place of Cubs starting pitcher Jose Quintana for the fifth. Jedd Gyorko pinch hit for Cardinals starter Flaherty, who went five innings and struck out eight.
The game was stopped at 7:44 p.m., however, there was no rain in the stadium for more than 30 minutes after the grounds crew covered the field.
Jose Quintana had six strikeouts in four innings and had allowed four St. Louis hits.
