Molina's homer pushes Cardinals past Giants

ST. LOUIS -- Yadier Molina's 100th career home run in the bottom of the eighth inning snapped a tie, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Molina added an RBI single in the first and rookie Stephen Piscotty homered in the third for St. Louis, which took two of three from the NL West-contending Giants. The Cardinals are 77-43 overall and 46-19 at home, both tops in the majors.

Kevin Siegrist (5-0) allowed a walk in the eighth, and Trevor Rosenthal earned his 38th save in 40 chances, striking out pinch-hitting pitcher Madison Bumgarner to end it. Siegrist won both of the games in the series, and the Cardinals wrapped up a 6-3 homestand with three 2-1 series wins and have won six consecutive series overall.

Molina led off the eighth by lining an 0-1 breaking ball from Hunter Strickland (2-3) into the left field, and it stands for his fourth homer of the year.

Brandon Crawford and Kelby Tomlinson had two hits and an RBI apiece for the Giants, who missed a chance to pull one game behind the Dodgers.

Piscotty's second career homer put the Cardinals ahead 2-0 in the third, two innings after center fielder Juan Perez scaled the wall to rob him of a long ball in one of the top defensive plays of the season at Busch Stadium.

The Giants' Matt Cain ended a run of four poor starts, allowing two runs in six innings, and contributed a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. The Cardinals' Jaime Garcia gave up three runs in 6 1/3 innings.

The Cardinals manufactured the tying run in the seventh on two hits, one of them an unintentional swinging bunt by Brandon Moss, and a fielder's choice RBI. Rookie Tommy Pham's headfirst slide dislodged the ball from catcher Andrew Susac on Matt Carpenter's grounder to second.

Big sticks

Crawford has nine extra-base hits during a career-high 13-game hitting streak. ... Piscotty leads St. Louis with a .333 batting average since making his major league debut July 21. ... Molina broke a tie with the Giants' Buster Posey for ninth among active catchers in homers.

Trainer's room

Giants: OF Angel Pagan (knee) is expected to be activated off the DL on time Aug. 25.

Cardinals: Jason Heyward (hamstring) missed his second straight start but grounded out as a pinch-hitter to end the eighth. 1B Matt Adams (quad) is running near full speed and leaves for Florida to begin baseball activities Friday.

Up next

Giants: Jake Peavy (3-5, 4.18) is 5-2 with a 2.52 ERA in eight career starts against Pittsburgh.

Cardinals: St. Louis has a day off before beginning a 10-game trip to San Diego, Arizona and San Francisco.

John Lackey (10-7, 2.87) will be seeking his 13th consecutive quality start Friday against the Padres.