Bart homers, triples to lead Pirates over Cards

Carmen Mlodzinski picked up his first win as a starter as Pittsburgh beat St. Louis at PNC Park.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had hot bats on a frigid night, collecting their most hits and scoring their most runs in a game this season despite temperatures that dropped almost 20 degrees after first pitch.

Joey Bart hit his first home run and added an RBI triple in a four-run seventh inning, and Andrew McCutchen and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had two hits apiece as the Pirates posted a season-high 10 hits.

The Pirates provided run support for an impressive piggyback performance as Carmen Mlodzinski and Thomas Harrington combined to go the distance in an 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night before 8,250 at PNC Park.

It marked the second consecutive win for the Pirates (4-7), who topped four runs in a nine-inning game for the first time this season. Mlodzinski earned the victory, and Harrington became the first Pirates pitcher to earn a four-inning save since Jason Christiansen on July 17, 1998 at Montreal.

Bart crushed Cardinals lefty Matthew Liberatore’s first-pitch fastball 411 feet and into the bullpen in center field for his first home run of the season to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

The Pirates padded their lead in the second inning when Tommy Pham singled to third, Endy Rodriguez doubled to left and both scored on a single to right by Kiner-Falefa for a 3-0 lead. Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to center to drive in Kiner-Falefa and make it 4-0.

Mlodzinski kept the Cardinals scoreless through the first four innings, improving on his first start for the Pirates. In a 6-1 loss March 31 at Tampa Bay, he allowed four runs on five hits in the fourth.

This time, Mlodzinski didn’t surrender a run until the fifth. Michael Siani led off with a single to left, advanced to second on a Willson Contreras walk and scored on Brendan Donovan’s single to center to cut it to 4-1. It was the only run allowed by Mlodzinski, who gave up five hits and two walks and struck out six on 92 pitches.

Harrington, who gave up six earned runs in a 7-0 loss to the Rays in his major- league debut April 1, relieved Mlodzinski in the sixth. Harrington gave up a two-out solo home run to Yohel Pozo, who drove a belthigh 2-0 splitter 380 feet into the left-field bleachers to cut it to 4-2.

Kiner-Falefa led off the seventh with a single to right. With one out, the Cardinals replaced Liberatore with Chris Roycroft, who walked Hayes and gave up a tworun double to McCutchen to make it 6-2.

Bart followed by driving a 391-foot shot to center for an RBI triple over center fielder Michael Siani that bounced off the glove of a fan who reached over the fence. The Cardinals challenged the call, and umpires ruled fan interference but said Bart would have reached third and Mc-Cutchen would have scored regardless. Bart scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Oneil Cruz to give the Pirates an 8-2 advantage.

The Cardinals cut it to 8-3 in the eighth when Brendan Donovan scored on Jordan Walker’s groundout to third. Masyn Winn hit a solo homer off Harrington in the ninth to cut the Cardinals’ deficit to four runs.