Nolan Gorman hit the second grand slam of his major league career to help the visiting St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-4 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of their three-game series on Tuesday.
Alec Burleson hit a two-run homer, Brendan Donovan had three hits, a run and an RBI, and Masyn Winn and Paul Goldschmidt each contributed two hits and a run for the Cardinals, who have won three of their last four games.
Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson (6-3) allowed four runs and five hits in five innings. He struck out eight and walked one.
John King, Ryan Fernandez and JoJo Romero combined for three innings of scoreless relief before Ryan Helsley pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 31st consecutive save, moving him past Lee Smith for the most by a St. Louis reliever before the All-Star break.
Jack Suwinski had three hits, including a three-run homer, and Andrew McCutchen also went deep for Pittsburgh, which has dropped three of four.
Pittsburgh right-hander Mitch Keller (9-5) surrendered season highs of six runs, five earned. He gave up five hits, struck out five and did not walk a batter while pitching at least five innings for the 48th straight start.
Winn had a ground-rule double with one out in the third before Burleson blasted a full-count fastball over the fence in right for a 2-0 lead.
St. Louis began the fourth with a single by Donovan. Nolan Arenado then reached on catcher’s interference and Matt Carpenter singled to load the bases.
Gorman then reached out and lifted a backdoor curve over the fence in center for a grand slam and a 6-0 lead.
Gibson responded by striking out the side in bottom half of the inning, but he didn’t fare so well in the fifth, giving up back-to-back singles to start the inning by Rowdy Tellez and Nick Gonzales.
One out later, Suwinski worked the count full before pulling a 448-foot homer deep over the fence in right to cut it to 6-3.
McCutchen came up with two outs and lined a homer over the fence in center to further trim the deficit to 6-4.
With one out in the seventh, Goldschmidt poked a double into the right field corner. Donovan followed with a line-drive single to center to make it 7-4.
–Field Level Media
