Piscotty homers in 8th as Cardinals rally past Cubs

Stephen Piscotty (right) celebrates with Cardinals teammate Greg Garcia after Sunday night's 6-4 win against the Cubs in Chicago.
Stephen Piscotty (right) celebrates with Cardinals teammate Greg Garcia after Sunday night's 6-4 win against the Cubs in Chicago.

CHICAGO - Stephen Piscotty hit a three-run homer, Brandon Moss followed with a solo shot one out later and the St. Louis Cardinals used a five-run eighth inning to beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4 on Sunday night.

Piscotty hit his 17th homer off setup man Hector Rondon (2-3), who entered with a 3-1 lead in his first appearance since Aug. 2 because of a triceps injury. After pinch-hitter Kolten Wong and Greg Garcia singled, Piscotty lofted a shot to deep left-center field to put the Cardinals ahead 4-3.

Moss added his 21st homer, then Randal Grichuk doubled in a run off Travis Wood.

The Cardinals split a four-game series with major league-leading Chicago, which dropped its second straight following an 11-game winning streak.

Cubs starter John Lackey allowed only one unearned run and four hits before leaving with two outs in the seventh with an injury. Anthony Rizzo went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and three RBI and Ben Zobrist knocked in a run with a sac fly.

Lackey was sailing along and struck out five in his fourth straight solid start. But the right-hander grimaced in pain after throwing a pitch to Grichuk. Lackey walked off the field and was replaced by Justin Grimm, who struck out Grichuk.

Matt Bowman (2-4) got three outs in the seventh in relief of Mike Leake for the win. Leake allowed three runs on six hits in six innings and retired 16 in a row during one stretch despite entering with a 9.00 ERA in his previous four starts.

Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh got the final five outs, including three strikeouts in the ninth, for his 11th save in 12 chances.

Garcia snapped an 0-for-31 streak with a single with one out in the third, then came around to score an unearned run on Zobrist's throwing error to make it 2-1.

Kris Bryant ended Leake's run with a triple to right-center with one out in the sixth. He scored on Rizzo's second RBI single to make it 3-1.

After the Cardinals took a 6-3 lead in the eighth, Rizzo hit his 25th homer in the bottom half.

Notes: Cardinals OF Matt Holliday (broken right thumb) is expected to be re-examined by the team's hand specialist today. St. Louis LHP Kevin Siegrist left after striking out Zobrist in the eighth with an apparent injury and was replaced by Oh. Following a day off today, Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia (9-8, 3.93) opens a two-game set in Houston against LHP Dallas Keuchel (7-11, 4.56). St. Louis also has Thursday off, but manager Mike Matheny plans no changes to his strained rotation.