ST. LOUIS _ Having found his wandering self in Pittsburgh as he homered in four consecutive games, Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt put his rediscovered swing on display at Busch Stadium Friday night _ with the same result.
His fifth home run in five games, a personal best, was a game-winning, three-run blast to center field in the eighth inning as the Cardinals rallied twice to overcome the Houston Astros, 5-3.
Goldschmidt's shot to center off reliever Ryan Pressly knocked in Dexter Fowler, who had walked and Harrison Bader, running for Jose Martinez, who had doubled. This gave Goldschmidt 12 runs batted in for those five games. Carlos Martinez nailed down the Cardinals' sixth consecutive victory with his 10th save of the season.
And the Cardinals had undisputed possession of first place in the National League Central Division for the first time since May 6 as Chicago lost to Milwaukee.
Jack Flaherty, who has had nine no-decisions and no wins in his past 12 games, left trailing 2-1. The game would result in yet another no-decision for the Cardinals' right-hander, who has been 4-6 forever but he could handle this one.
Houston had gone ahead 3-2 in the top of the eighth on a bases-loaded walk by Andrew Miller with two out after Cardinals catcher Matt Wieters had homered in the seventh to tie the score at 2-2.
Winless since May 14 overall and since April 28 at home, Flaherty allowed just two runs in six innings. He gave up three hits and struck out nine, running his career total to 333 in just 55 starts, most by a Cardinals pitcher over that span.
Flaherty, who had difficulty with some high pitch counts early in games during his winless streak, was much more efficient, at least early on. He required just 40 pitches to set down the Astros for the first three innings, stranding Yuli Gurriel, who had doubled with two out in the second when Flaherty induced Josh Reddick to ground sharply to second baseman Kolten Wong. Flaherty fanned George Springer twice in the first three innings.
Right-hander Jose Urquidy, making his fourth start for Houston after opening the year in Class AA, permitted just one hit, Fowler's single, over the first three frames.
Flaherty walked his first man, Alex Bregman, with one out in the fourth. Then he allowed his first run(s) as Michael Brantley ripped a 415-foot homer, his 16th of the season, off a Flaherty changeup and Houston had the early lead.
Flaherty would strike out three hitters in the inning, giving him seven for the night, but it cost him 32 pitches in the process.
The Cardinals cut the lead in the half in the fourth on singles by Goldschmidt, Tyler O'Neill (who had been 0 for 14) and Wong, who extended his hitting streak to eight games with his two-out RBI hit to right center.
Flaherty departed after throwing 108 pitches in six innings, 10 of them coming to pitcher Urquidy during a fifth-inning strikeout which was prolonged unnecessarily because a fan impeded right fielder Martinez from catching a foul fly that had traveled into the seating area.
But Wieters, who has nine homers this season and seven in his past 15 games, pulled a Will Harris cutter into the right-field seats to tie the game at 2-2 in the seventh. Wieters' ninth homer came in only his 114th at-bat this season and topped his total of eight in 235 at-bats last year in Washington. In 2017 with the Nationals, the switch hitter had 10 homers, but in 422 at-bats, or more than 300 then has now.
The Astros, playing National League rules, finally got to employ their dangerous designated hitter, Yordan Alvarez, as a pinch hitter in the eighth and Alvarez promptly rifled a double to left center off John Gant. Gant then retired Springer on a liner to center before walking both Jose Altuve and Bregman, summoning former Cleveland reliever Miller to face longtime former teammate Brantley with the bases loaded.
Pitching with other American League teams, Miller had allowed three hits in nine at-bats to Brantley but four strikeouts.
This was no contest as Miller walked Brantley on four pitches to give the Astros the lead. The left-hander then fell behind Carlos Correa before recording the inning-ending strikeout, preventing a bigger inning that could have put the Astros in better shape to withstand the continued onslaught of Goldschmidt, who has 23 homers for the season.
