ST. LOUIS (AP) - Carlos Beltran had RBI his first two at-bats to help chase A.J. Burnett early and Joe Kelly beat the Pittsburgh Pirates for the third straight time in a 12-8 rout Friday night that pulled the St. Louis Cardinals within a half-game of the NL Central leaders.
Burnett (7-10) gave up five runs in three innings, his shortest outing of the year, and the Cardinals opened a seven-run seventh with nine straight hits off three relievers including Yadier Molina's three-run homer off Bryan Morris. The Pirates have lost two straight, both blowouts, and remain a win shy of clinching their first winning season since 1992.
Kelly (8-3) has been the stopper lately for a struggling rotation, winning five straight starts. He's 8-0 with a 2.10 ERA in 11 appearances since getting the fifth spot in late June and then waiting 14 days because of off-days in the schedule to make that start.
Leadoff man Matt Carpenter tripled and doubled to tie Albert Pujols' season record of 98 hits in 2008 at 8-year-old Busch Stadium, also his major league high 55th multihit game. Jon Jay, coming off a 1-for-20 trip, had three hits and three RBI.
The Pirates have scored two runs in 18 innings against Kelly. The only thing the right-hander hasn't done is save the bullpen, working six innings in each of his last five starts with a season best of 61â„3 innings.
Pittsburgh had five baserunners and no runs the first two innings and stranded 10 runners in six innings against Kelly, who allowed one run and eight hits. Pedro Alvarez, who grounded out with the bases loaded to end the first, had an RBI single in the fifth.
The Cardinals led 12-1 after seven innings but needed Edward Mujica to get the final out for his 36th save in 39 chances. Josh Harrison hit a two-run pinch-hit homer off Jake Westbrook in a four-run eighth and Jose Tabata hit a two-run double off Carlos Martinez in a three-run ninth before Harrison flied out with two men on to end a game that lasted 3 hours and 47 minutes.
The Cardinals rebounded from a 2-5 trip in which they scored two or fewer runs five times, one of them against Burnett in a 7-1 loss Aug. 31. Burnett had been 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA in five starts against the Cardinals, but facing them in consecutive starts led to his fastest exit since he allowed 12 earned runs in 22â„3 innings, including two homers and seven RBI by Beltran, in a 12-3 loss May 2, 2012, also in St. Louis.