ST. LOUIS_A day after pounding out 11 hits and losing 3-0 to the Padres in San Diego, the St. Louis Cardinals posted an efficient 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night before a crowd of 40,966 at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals, who outhit the Padres 11-9 in Thursday's loss, were outhit 9-5 by Pittsburgh and scored their first two runs on infield outs.
Luke Weaver, who drove in his first big league run in the third, won his fourth straight start and improved to 5-1. The rookie righthander scattered seven hits over 5 2/3 innings, allowing no runs while striking out seven and walking no one.
Friday's game was scoreless in the third when Greg Garcia led off with the home team's first hit of the night, an opposite-field double down the left-field line. He moved to third on a groundout by Alex Mejia and scored on a broken-bat groundout to third by Weaver.
The Pirates had hits in three of the first four innings, but Weaver managed to work around them.
After an infield hit from Starling Marte to open the game, Weaver retired the next three hits to end the first.
Pittsburgh came up with back-to-back hits from Jordan Luplow and Elias Diaz with one out in the second, but Weaver got Jordy Mercer on a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat.
In the fourth, after a one-out hit from Josh Bell, Weaver struck out David Freese and Yadier Molina fired to second to cut down Bell on a steal attempt for the inning-ending double play.
The Cardinals added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth as Tommy Pham led off with a walk and raced to third on a hit-and-run hit to left by Jose Martinez. After Molina struck out, Grichuk grounded sharply to third; Freese threw to second for the force but Grichuk beat the play at first, driving in Pham with the game's second run.
The Cardinals doubled their lead to 4-0 in the fifth. With one out, Weaver lined a single up the middle and Matt Carpenter followed with his third walk in as many plate appearances. An out later, Pham was hit by pitch to load the bases and Martinez followed by lining an 0-2 pitch up the middle for a two-run single and a 4-0 lead for the home team.
Pittsburgh got a run back in the seventh off reliever John Brebbia as Elias walked with one out, moved up on a groundout and scored on a two-out single by pinch-hitter Adam Frazier.
The Pirates, who stranded seven, were led by rookie first baseman Bell, who had three hits. Frazier drove in the Pittsburgh run.
Trevor Williams (6-8) started and took the loss.
Martinez had two hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead the Cardinals, who also got RBIs from Weaver and Grichuk.
After Weaver, the Cardinals used Matt Bowman, Brebbia, Ryan Sherriff and Juan Nicasio, who picked up the save after working 1 1/3 innings in his Cardinals' debut.
Friday's game marked the first of 22 straight against NL Central foes to close out the regular season.
