**ST. LOUIS** — Paul Goldschmidt and Brendan Donovan both hit home runs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
Donovan’s home run off Mitch Keller at the start of the sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie and extended his hitting streak to eight games. This win marked the first time the Cardinals won back-to-back games since May 29.
“A pitcher like that, you want to catch him more out in front because he has really good stuff that breaks into you,” Donovan explained. “So, you want to be on time a little more out in front, and you never know in this ballpark, but it snuck out.”
Lance Lynn pitched 4 1/3 innings, ending a streak of four consecutive quality starts by Cardinals pitchers. He allowed three runs on four hits, walked three, and struck out five. His fifth strikeout, against Ke’Bryan Hayes in the fifth inning, was his 987th as a Cardinal, moving him past Matt Morris for sixth place on the franchise’s all-time list.
“I left another decent outing on the table by not getting through the fifth, but the bullpen picked me up like they’ve been doing all year and offense scrapped through,” Lynn said.
Chris Roycroft (1-0) earned his first major league decision as five Cardinals relievers combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings, with Andrew Kittredge earning his first save.
“I’m just at a loss of words right now,” Roycroft said. “It definitely means the world to me.”
Mitch Keller (8-4) allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings, striking out four without walking anyone. The Pirates have now lost three of their last four games. The home runs by Goldschmidt and Donovan were the first Keller had allowed in his last five starts.
“Mitch wasn’t very sharp,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “As good as he’s been, he just wasn’t overly sharp today and left a couple of balls in the middle of the plate and they capitalized and hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
Keller’s start marked his 45th consecutive outing of at least five innings, tying him with Ed Doheny (1903) for the fourth-longest such streak in Pirates history.
Goldschmidt’s two-run homer in the third inning gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead, his first extra-base hit since June 3. José Fermín sparked a rally in the fourth with his first major league triple, scoring on a Pedro Pagés single to make it 3-0.
Bryan Reynolds’ bases-loaded infield single scored Jack Suwinski and ended Lynn’s outing in the fifth. Oneil Cruz then hit a two-run single off reliever John King to tie the game at 3.
“That was a very good game,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. “Our pen did a phenomenal job. We were able to piece it together.”
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