ST. LOUIS _ Starling Marte singled to score Cole Tucker in the eighth inning and the Pirates went on to post a 2-1 win over the Cardinals on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
Pittsburgh had three hits in the inning against Andrew Miller (1-2) after Adam Wainwright allowed one run with eight strikeouts in seven innings of work.
The Cardinals got Wainwright off the hook by scoring a run in the seventh. He had a strong outing after allowing a leadoff home run by Adam Frazier and retired the last 10 batters he faced.
Pittsburgh starter Trevor Williams got out of tough situations several times early in the game, including a bases-loaded jam in the first inning. The Cardinals left a runner at second in the second and third innings and second and third in the fourth.
They threatened in the eighth against reliever Kyle Crick. Jose Martinez started the inning with a walk and went to third on a single by Yadier Molina. However, Dexter Fowler struck out and Kolten Wong hit into a double play to strand the potential tying run.
Paul Goldschmidt had three hits for the second consecutive game to increase his batting average to .265.
Felipe Vasquez pitched the ninth for the Pirates to pick up his 11th save.
The Cardinals had hoped to be out of an offensive funk after scoring 17 runs in the series opener.
