Carpenter’s walk-off HR powers Cards past Bucs

ST. LOUIS — After losing their first four matchups with the Pirates this season, the Cardinals walked off with a win thanks to Matt Carpenter’s two-run homer, taking down Pittsburgh, 6-4, on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

With the game tied and one out in the eighth, right fielder Stephen Piscotty — who also homered in the third inning — ripped a double to left field off Pirates reliever Jared Hughes. Randal Grichuk then knocked a two-out, ground-ball single to center field off Hughes, putting St. Louis back on top. But Starling Marte’s ground-rule RBI double off closer Trevor Rosenthal evened things up in the top of the ninth.

Rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz hustled out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the ninth against Pirates reliever A.J. Schugel. Carpenter came to the plate with one out and crushed a 1-2 changeup to right-center field, the first walk-off homer of his big league career.

After each team scored two runs in the first inning, both starters — the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright and Pirates’ left-hander Jeff Locke — settled down considerably. Wainwright retired 14 consecutive batters at one point and left having allowed three runs in 6 1/3 innings. Locke recorded his third straight quality start, permitting three runs in six innings and sitting down the final 12 batters he faced.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDQuick strike: The Pirates went right to work against Wainwright, as each of their first four hitters picked up a hit to begin the game. John Jaso singled, Andrew McCutchen doubled, Gregory Polanco hit a bloop RBI single and Marte singled to center before Wainwright could record an out. Wainwright promptly retired the Bucs’ next three hitters, but they tacked on another run on Jung Ho Kang’s sacrifice fly to right …

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