PITTSBURGH (AP) - Shelby Miller won his fourth straight start and Trevor Rosenthal induced a bases-loaded double play to end the game as the St. Louis Cardinals held off Pittsburgh 6-5 on Sunday.
Allen Craig and Yadier Molina had two hits each, including RBI singles in a four-run first inning.
Miller (5-2) walked four and allowed four hits in 51/3 innings, but held the Pirates to just two runs - which came on Jordy Mercer's first home run of the season in the fourth inning.
Rosenthal gave up a run in the ninth that made it 5-4, but got Mercer to hit into a 1-2-3 double play to end it.
Charlie Morton (0-5) was charged with only one earned run of the four he allowed over six innings but remained winless since Sept. 2, a span of 14 starts.
Pittsburgh's Pedro Alvarez had three hits.
Rosenthal survived an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen to notch his 10th save as the Cardinals avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Jon Jay also has two hits for St. Louis as did Tony Sanchez for the Pirates, whose season-best four-game winning streak ended.
Mark Ellis also had an RBI single in the first inning for St. Louis and Craig added a sacrifice fly.
Mercer cut the Pirates' deficit in half to 4-2 in the fourth inning when he a two-run home run to left field, his first of the season.
Alvarez pulled Pittsburgh within a run in the seventh with an RBI single.
However, the Cardinals answered with a two-run eighth inning to move in front 6-3 as Peter Bourjos singled in a run and Jay scored on a wild pitch by Bryan Morris.
Bourjos, who started the previous four games, did not start because of a cut on his right wrist that came as a result of getting spiked Saturday night while attempting to break up a double play. However, he entered the game in the game in the seventh inning as a defensive replacement.
The Pirates scored in the bottom of the eighth on Sanchez's groundout.