ST. LOUIS _ Paul Goldschmidt launched the Cardinals into first place when he hit his 25th home run of the season and 11th of July in the sixth inning of a 2-1 win over the Cubs at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.
Goldschmidt had homered in six consecutive games before being kept inside the park by Houston on Sunday.
His solo shot off of Yu Darvish was his second game-winner in the last four games and made a winner of relief pitcher Giovanny Gallegos (3-1), who escaped a bases-loaded situation in the sixth.
The Cardinals' bullpen had another strong game as Gallegos, Andrew Miller and Carlos Martinez combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings with Martinez pitching 1 1/3 with three strikeouts for his 11th save.
Adam Wainwright pitched 5 2/3 strong innings, allowing five hits and one run in the fourth inning. He ran into trouble with two outs in the sixth on a hit, an intentional walk and another walk and was replaced. Gallegos recorded the final out of the inning on a fly ball.
Darvish (3-5) was sharp and struck out nine in six innings, but a bout of wildness cost him in the fourth. Jose Martinez scored on Darvish's second wild pitch of the inning to tie the game after the Cubs scored in the top of the inning.
Martinez and Goldschmidt started the fourth with singles with Martinez going to third base. Paul DeJong struck out but the ball eluded catcher Victor Caratini for a wild pitch as Goldschmidt moved to second base.
Darvish proceeded to bounce a pitch behind Kolten Wong to the backstop, allowing Martinez to score without a play. Tyler O'Neill then struck out to strand Goldschmidt at third.
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