The St Louis Cardinals relied on the small ball to get ahead of Pittsburgh, nudging past the Pirates 4-2 on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.

Nolan Arenado doubled in the third to open the scoring for the Cardinals. The Redbirds then added two in the fourth with a single by Dylan Carlson, then a fielder’s choice grounder from Masyn Winn that brought in Brendan Donovan. Donovan would then add an RBI single of his own in the fifth. Pittsburgh was limited to RBIs from Michael A Taylor and Henry Davis. Both teams had a chance to open the game up early, with Pittsburgh having runners on second and third with no outs in the first, and the Cardinals loading the bases with one out in the second.

Ultimately, Sonny Gray persevered, going seven innings and allowing one earned run on four hits and one walk, while striking out nine to claim his eighth win of the season. Ryan Helsley collected his 22nd save of the season.

The Cardinals remain seven games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central with a record of 32-34. The final game of the series against Pittsburgh is this afternoon, with first pitch at 1:15.