 leading off the fifth and Marte followed with his seventh home run. Luplow went deep an inning later off Brett Cecil.Jameson Taillon (8-7) allowed one run and four hits in five innings. Five pitchers combined for hitless relief, with Felipe Rivero striking out two in a perfect ninth for his 19th save in 21 chances.Matt Carpenter hit his 22nd home run for St. Louis.Pittsburgh has faded from contention but put together its first winning streak in three weeks by pouncing on the Cardinals' patched-together rotation. A day after chasing Lance Lynn in the first inning of an 11-6 victory, Pittsburgh pounced when the Cardinals went to the bullpen.Still in the playoff mix thanks to a September surge, the Cardinals opted to give John Gant his first major league start. Gant worked three innings, allowing a sacrifice fly by Jose Osuna, while walking two and giving up three hits.Taillon, finishing a season that included a month-long absence due to testicular cancer, battled through five innings in his final home start of the year. He needed 95 pitches to get 15 outs.St. Louis loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh before George Kontos got Pham to hit into a forceout..TRAINER'S ROOMCardinals: 1B Jose Martinez is dealing with a sprained left thumb and a timetable for his return is uncertain. Martinez had an MRI in St. Louis on Saturday that revealed no serious damage. Martinez flew to St. Louis after leaving Friday night's win against the Pirates in the sixth inning due to pain in the thumb.Pirates: SS Jordy Mercer was held out of the lineup after exiting Saturday night's victory with soreness in his left knee.UP NEXTCardinals: RHP Luke Weaver (7-1, 2.05 ERA) starts Monday against the Chicago Cubs and LHP Jon Lester (11-8, 4.56) in the opener of a seven-game homestand.Pirates: RHP Trevor Williams (6-9, 4.18) starts Tuesday versus Baltimore and RHP Kevin Gausman (11-10, 4.61).---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Cardinals turn to Gant in series finale versus Pirates 1h ago• 2 min read PITTSBURGH -- St. Louis, clawing to get into the playoffs and trying to improve to 6-1-1 in its most recent eight series, will turn to John Gant on Sunday.Gant, a sinkerballer, will be making his first start as a Cardinal player and first in the majors this season when St. Louis (81-73) plays the rubber match of a three-game series against also-ran Pittsburgh (70-85) at PNC Park.The Pirates did a little spoiling Saturday night with an 11-6 victory, breaking the Cardinals' four-game winning streak and leaving them a half-game behind second-place Milwaukee and five behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.The Cardinals are 1 1/2 games behind Colorado for the final NL wild-card spot.Sunday will be St. Louis' last road game of the regular season.Gant (0-0, 3.86 ERA) earned the promotion to this start -- with Jack Flaherty going to the bullpen -- after three solid relief appearances."I'm just going to go make the start and do my best," Gant told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'm not approaching it any different kind of way. I'm just going to go play baseball."I feel pretty loose. I feel comfortable going the distance -- whatever that may be." Wednesday at Cincinnati, he pitched two scoreless innings in his most recent relief appearance."The ball's coming out good and I've been making some good pitches," the 25-year-old told the Post-Dispatch."It's nice being here in the playoff push, but it's still just baseball," he said. "I'm here to take some pressure off some of the other guys by picking up some innings and to do whatever I'm asked to do. I want to contribute any way I can to help this team win and to find a way into the playoffs." Gant broke into the majors with Atlanta last season before being acquired by the Cardinals in the offseason for left-hander Jaime Garcia. He was recalled from Triple-A Memphis as part of the general roster expansion Sept. 1. His last start was Aug. 27 for Memphis, when he allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings.Against the Pirates, Gant is 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in two career relief appearances.Gant will square off against Pittsburgh right-hander and fellow 25-year-old Jameson Taillon (7-7, 4.73 ERA). Taillon has had an up-and-down season and it seemed to be showing the later in the season it got.He is 2-5 with a 6.86 ERA since the All-Star break and hasn't had a win since Aug. 11 at Toronto.Then, earlier this month, he had his turn in the lineup skipped. That gave him a boost, even if the results weren't great immediately.In his first start after the 10-day layoff, Taillon allowed two runs in five-plus innings with six hits, one walk and four strikeouts."I actually thought I did pretty well, definitely an encouraging step in the right direction, which is what I'm looking for at the end of the year," Taillon said."The season's coming to a close. I'm just looking to trend in the right direction." Taillon is 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in four career starts against St. Louis.
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