Dustin May tossed six strong innings and Alec Burleson drove in two runs, fueling the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-3 victory over the visiting Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday afternoon.

May (2-2) allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts for St. Louis, which won the rubber match of the series after posting a 6-5 victory on Tuesday. Nathan Church went 3-for-4 with an RBI double on Wednesday.

Cleveland’s Slade Cecconi allowed one run on three hits with five walks in four innings. Connor Brogdon (2-2) relieved Cecconi and surrendered three runs on two hits in 1 1/3 innings.

Bo Naylor drove in two runs for the Guardians, who lost for the fourth time in six games.

Cleveland opened the scoring in the first inning on Kyle Manzardo’s two-out single.

St. Louis evened the score in the second inning.

Church singled and stole second with one out before coming around to score on Pedro Pages’s RBI single. Cecconi walked JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera to load the bases before striking out Burleson to escape the jam.

After throwing a perfect fifth inning in relief of Cecconi, Brogdon allowed singles to Masyn Winn and Church in the sixth before Victor Scott II walked to load the bases. Wetherholt’s sacrifice fly off Tim Herrin gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead, and St. Louis tacked on two more runs on Burleson’s single.

St. Louis reliever Justin Bruihl entered in the seventh inning and surrendered Naylor’s two-run double. JoJo Romero, however, retired Brayan Rocchio on two pitches, preserving the one-run lead.

Cleveland’s fourth pitcher, Matt Festa, gave up Nolan Gorman’s leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh before Church laced a run-scoring double to extend the Cardinals’ edge to 5-3.

Riley O’Brien posted his fifth save in as many opportunities with a perfect top of the ninth.

–Field Level Media