ST. LOUIS _ Down to his final strike and the Cardinals' final out of the 10th inning, Tyler O'Neill connected on a pitch and had little doubt where it would land.
As his home run carried the Cardinals to a walk-off win Saturday, O'Neill walked away from the batter's box and pointed his bat at the Cardinals dugout. His teammates were already spilling out of it. O'Neill's first career game-winning home run vaulted the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory against San Francisco at Busch Stadium.
The win in the 10th inning was the Cardinals 11th walk-off of the season.
The Cardinals (86-69) have won five of their past six games and continue to set the pace for Colorado to chase for the National League's second wild-card berth.
The Cardinals rallied from a 4-2 score that momentarily set up Adam Wainwright for a loss Saturday. The veteran allowed four runs on eight hits through 61/3 innings. He struck out six and did not allow a walk, and two of the runs he allowed came on bloop hits or misplays by fielders. There were two poor plays in the outfield that also contributed to his line.
Home runs brought the Cardinals back.
First Yadier Molina's two-run shot in the seventh tied the score, and then O'Neill's ninth homer of the season set the win. O'Neill took a 2-2 pitch from Mark Melancon over the left-field wall. That made a winner of Carlos Martinez (8-6) for his two scoreless innings of work.
Having already eclipsed Brad Ausmus and moved into the top 10 all time for starts by a catcher, with 1,767, Molina did more than call Wainwright's start.
He saved it.
An upside-down seventh inning led to three runs for the Giants, Wainwright's exit, and a two-run deficit for the Cardinals. Molina solved that with one swing. His two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh tied the game and gave him the Molina Family lead for career home runs. The 145th of his career surpasses big brother Bengie Molina's total of 144.
The home run was Molina' 19th of the season.
The game froze there, held in place by Martinez through the ninth, and into extra innings.
With similar pace and success that he had against the Dodgers, six of the first 13 outs Wainwright got Saturday came on strikeouts.
He got Hunter Pence swinging past a fastball, and then he dropped a 75-mph curveball on Chris Shaw to end a flawless fourth inning. In the first, he started by striking out Alen Hanson with a curveball, and then he pitched around an infield single to end the inning without a groundout.
The lone run the Giants got against Wainwright in the first six innings came on a flare single that fell safely to the grass in right-center field. Joe Panik's two-out single scored Aramis Garcia and cut the Cardinals' lead in half.
Wainwright helped himself with an RBI single in the second inning for the Cardinals' first run. In the third, the Cardinals opened a 2-0 lead on the Giants with Paul DeJong's one-out single to right field. That was all Wainwright had to work with for most of the game. He maintained a lead going into the seventh inning _ an inning farther than he got this past weekend against LA.
Pence led off with a single and Hanson followed with a bloop that dropped just inside the left-field line.
All of the infielders on the left side of the infield gave chase for a ball that left fielder Marcell Ozuna would pick up. That brought Wainwright over to cover first base and gave Ozuna a target _ which he missed. The throw was wide, even past Wainwright's reach, and it nearly reached the first-base line. That allowed both runners to advance safely, and that mattered when Garcia's flair fell in front of center fielder Harrison Bader.
Garcia's two-run single tied the game, 2-2.
Wainwright was allowed to press on _ for one more batter. When Rodriguez singled to left field, Wainwright was lifted with two runners on base. One of them would go on to score. The three-run rally _ all of which turned out to be earned for Wainwright _ put the Giants ahead, 4-2.
The lead was fleeting.
