Gerrit Cole pitched seven strong innings and Aramis Ramirez, Sean Rodriguez and Starling Marte homered as the Pirates crushed the Cardinals 7-1. The Bucs leave St. Louis after taking two of three and shrinking the Cardinals' division lead to 5.5 games. That's still a big deficit, and the Bucs would have been in much better position if they'd swept the series, but they're closer to first place than they were a few days ago.
It looked at first as if the Pirates might be in for a long night. Cole was all over the place in the first inning, walking two batters.