PHOENIX _ Once the St. Louis Cardinals' maligned offense finally took advantage of their parade of chances against Arizona, it was up to the steadily, quietly improving bullpen to make it matter.
The Cardinals rallied from an early deficit and surged ahead with Yadier Molina's three-run homer to highlight a five-run seventh inning.
That helped the Redbirds overcome recurring misses on offense and two infield throwing errors to give the relievers a lead they turned into a series win. The bullpen held for an 8-4 victory against Arizona on Wednesday at Chase Field. The Cardinals claimed their first road series victory in a month, giving a pivotal trip a needed start in the right direction.
Despite having a runner in scoring position in four of the first five innings, the Cardinals didn't capitalize with a rally until the seventh, once Arizona's bullpen got involved.
Yairo Munoz tied the game with a solo home run off reliever Yoshihisa Hirano, Tommy Pham broke that tie, and Molina salted a lead with his 13th home run of the season. The game-breaking blast came off former teammate Fernando Salas.
That bounce of offense gave the Cardinals their big seventh inning that gave the relievers enough protection to get around an error.
Matt Carpenter reached base four times in the game, but he also had two throwing errors that led directly to runs, which he offense by driving home one and scoring one. They would add on later as Pham completed a three-hit night with a run-scoring double in the eighth inning, giving him three RBIs in the game.
That late gush gave Jordan Hicks and the bullpen plenty of latitude despite an earlier bump by Greg Holland. Hicks had a strong two-inning stint, with three strikeouts.
Bud Norris finished the game in a non-save situation after riding in on the bullpen cart for the second time in the series. He fanned two and walked one.
In the previous two games against Arizona, the Cardinals' scoring had all been isolated to three of 18 innings. They had gone eight days without a five-run inning such as Wednesday's _ and it wasn't for lack of opportunity.
The Cardinals had 10 at-bats with a runner in scoring position by the end of the fifth inning against lefty Patrick Corbin, and all they had for those chances was Pham's RBI single. Miles Mikolas (9-3) bought the offense time with six sturdy innings, and the rally came at just the right time to earn a ninth win for the starter.
With voting coming to a close for this year's All-Star Game, the battery for the Cardinals on Wednesday remains their most likely All-Star Game representatives. Despite missing a month due to injury, Molina leads all NL catchers with 13 home runs, and Mikolas has put together one of the strongest returns to the majors in recent memory. The righthander has thrown six quality starts in his previous seven appearances.
Hicks entered the game with two on in the seventh inning and was able to get a double play, unleash a 104-mph fastball, and then catch the final batter of the inning looking at a slider for a strikeout. The Diamondbacks had scored two runs � both charged to Holland _ but Hicks' fireman outing gave the Cardinals a chance to add on and secure the series.
True to their troubles, the Cardinals had opportunity after opportunity against Corbin and did little with any of them.
By the end of the third inning, the Cardinals' Nos. 2-4 hitters _the thrust of what should be the team's offensive pulse _ all had come to the plate with a runner in scoring position twice. Not one of them got a hit.
Only one of them put enough on a pitch to advance the runner, and even then it was the wrong runner. By the end of the fourth inning, the Cardinals were 0 for 7 with a runner in scoring position, and one of those at-bats had moved a runner from first to second base, leaving the runner who was at third, so close to home, still standing there.
Pham cracked the ice in the fifth inning.
Leadoff man Carpenter reached base for the third time in as many plate appearances with his second double of the game. No. 2 hitter Pham skimmed a single to center field, and third-base coach Jose Oquendo, on his birthday, decided to go for a gift. He aggressively sent Carpenter around third base. Center fielder Jarrod Dyson had the ball and was uncoiling his throw when Carpenter touched third _ and still because of Oquendo's send Carpenter was able to score easily. The cutoff was botched allowing it to happen.
Carpenter's run cut Arizona's lead in half, 2-1.
Pham took second on the throw to put another runner in scoring position for the middle of the Cardinals order.
Pham got only as far as third.
In the first half of the game, No. 3 hitter Jose Martinez was zero-for-three with a runner in scoring position with two groundouts. Cleanup hitter Marcell Ozuna had struck out twice to end the inning and the threat and in each at-bat he was undone by a breaking ball that he raced to try and catch.
Corbin had six strikeouts through his six innings, and in every inning he had to dance around a baserunner of some sort. If Carpenter didn't double, Harrison Bader did. If Carpenter didn't draw a walk from Corbin, Jedd Gyorko did.
Yet the lefty still limited the Cardinals to one run despite all the traffic. Corbin has allowed two earned runs in his previous 19 innings, and he struck out 23 in that time.
Mikolas had to do some similar tiptoeing around runners, though how Arizona generated them was unusual. An unapologetic strike-thrower, Mikolas walked two batters in the first inning, and Arizona had the bases loaded against him. Mikolas got a lineup here and strikeout there to keep Arizona stuck just as Corbin did the Cardinals. It took an error to loosen Mikolas' hold.
Dyson drew a walk to open the fourth inning, and on Jon Jay's single to left field, Dyson held up at third. The throw came in and as Jay tried to advance to second, Carpenter threw high to the base. The ball going into center allowed Dyson to score for a 1-0 lead.
Jay entered the game one-for-34, but had three hits in his first four at-bats _ all against Mikolas. That extra base he took and error he drew, led to a run and a 2-0 lead two batters later.
