Major League Baseball

Thrice is nice: Homers from Peralta, Holliday and Wong lift Cardinals over Pirates

Published May. 8, 2015 11:27 p.m. ET

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ST. LOUIS --€“ The Cardinals clearly don't need home runs to win, but they sure do help.

Jhonny Peralta, Matt Holliday and Kolten Wong all crushed the baseball for deep blasts to propel St. Louis to an 8-4 win over Pittsburgh on Friday night. The three big hits accounted for all but one of the Cardinals' runs, since Holliday and Wong both homered with two men on base.

A solo shot to center from Peralta tied the game at one in the second inning, and Holliday's liner went over the wall in the deepest part of PNC Park, just over the 410-foot sign. That gave St. Louis a lead it would not give back, thanks in part to Wong's 413-foot bomb to right off of Arquimedes Caminero in the eighth.

"I knew what kind of pitcher he was," Wong told FOX Sports Midwest reporter Jim Hayes during the Cardinals Live postgame show. "He had the fastball up in the 100s and a little slider cutter pitch, so just looking for it down the middle where I knew I could put a good swing on it and just try and drive something and bring some runs in."

That one actually registered as the shortest of the three home runs, all of which would have been gone at any ballpark. But the Cardinals have surely been robbed of a few home runs by the deep gaps at Busch Stadium, where they've hit only eight home runs while winning 14 of 17 games.

Meanwhile, the power difference on the road has been noticeable, with 14 home runs in the last 10 games after two low-scoring, homer-less games in cold Wrigley Field to open the season. Matheny said the home runs got his team going Friday night and carried St. Louis to its 18th win in the last 22 games.

"We know we have guys that can do that," Matheny told reporters. "You look all the way through that order, there's guys with power, the ability to change the game."

3 UP

Watch the Cardinals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every St. Louis Cardinals game on FOX Sports Midwest.

• Wacha wins again. The Cardinals' most reliable starter this season turned in another solid performance to move back into a tie for the major league wins lead.

Michael Wacha threw enough strikes to get through six innings with no walks and three runs allowed on five Pittsburgh hits. St. Louis' offense did the rest to help him improve to 5-0 with a 2.09 ERA in six starts, including three with one run or less in at least six innings.

"He's just making good pitches," Matheny said. "I think he's a better pitcher when he's using everything."

• Hit streaks galore. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Cardinals are averaging seven runs per game since last Monday.

Five of the first seven batters in Friday's lineup extended their hit streaks to at least four games, led by Wong's six-game hit streak, during which he's 13 for 22 with eight RBIs. Right fielder Jason Heyward went 0 for 3 with a walk in Pittsburgh, but he entered the night batting .467 during a four-game hit streak.

• Bourjos on fire. Peter Bourjos keeps making it tougher and tougher to take him out of the lineup.

The speedy center fielder added two more doubles, but he's been so hot his average actually fell to a remarkable .458 over his last 10 games, which includes five starts. Bourjos had only 10 at-bats in the Cardinals' first 19 games.

3 DOWN

• Carpenter out. The Cardinals' power surge looked all the more impressive because they did it without their home run leader this season.

Third baseman Matt Carpenter didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh and will miss the entire series due to "extreme fatigue" that caused dehydration and an irregular heartbeat in the last week. Matheny said Carpenter should be back for Tuesday's game at Cleveland, but the manager may need to tell his hardest-working player to take a few more breaks.

• Defensive miscues. Pete Kozma's two-out fielding error in the first inning led to an unearned run, and another shaky defensive play gave Pittsburgh its second run.

Wacha adeptly fielded Pedro Alvarez's chopper and looked back Andrew McCutchen at third before throwing to second for a forceout. The speedy McCutchen decided to go for home and catcher Yadier Molina fielded a short throw from Peralta, but couldn't hold onto the ball when he applied the tag.

You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.

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