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Cards win in 14 innings to complete sweep of Pirates

May 4, 2015 - 12:27 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Kolten Wong capped a successful weekend for the St. Louis Cardinals with a home run to give them their sixth straight win.

Wong's solo homer in the bottom of the 14th lifted the Cardinals to a 3-2 win and a series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Each win in the series came in extra innings.

Miguel Socolovich (1-0) got the win for tossing a scoreless top of the 14th inning.

Jung-Ho Kang tied the game in the ninth with his first career home run, a drive to center field off Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal, then Pedro Alvarez launched a 1-1 fastball into right field off Sam Tuivailala for his fifth homer of the season that gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the 12th.

"All we can do is try to take as many positives as we can from each situation," Alvarez said of the sweep.

St. Louis then got a rally going in the home 12th off Radhames Liz (1-2). Yadier Molina singled to open the inning and was erased on a fielder's choice. Wong slapped a single into center that put runners at the corners and Jon Jay followed with a walk to load the bases.

Peter Bourjos worked the ensuing count full and on the ninth pitch of his at- bat, grounded an infield single off the glove of a diving Josh Harrison. Liz struck out Matt Holliday and induced a groundout from Matt Adams to get out of the jam.

Liz struck out Pete Kozma to begin the 14th before Wong poked his second home run of the season for the win.

"Wow. That's all I got," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said when asked about the series. "I love the fight that I am seeing."

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Matt Carpenter's homer that just made it over the center-field wall and past the outstretched arm of Andrew McCutchen, who lost his glove at the top of the wall in an attempt to rob the home run. Two batters later, Matt Adams sent a deep drive to center and McCutchen made the leaping catch this time, snaring it out of the air before crashing into the wall.

Kang ripped a single into left field to begin the seventh inning for Pittsburgh, then Chris Stewart moved him over to second with a bunt. St. Louis starter Michael Wacha got pinch-hitter Neil Walker to fly out to right and Randy Choate got out of the inning by inducing a groundout by Gregory Polanco.

Kang blasted a first pitch curveball over the wall in center to tie the game in the ninth, then the Pirates put two on with two outs in the 10th for Kang, who grounded out to end the inning.

St. Louis loaded the bases with two outs in the 11th, but Rob Scahill got Tony Cruz to pop out to end the threat.

Game Notes

Pittsburgh wrapped up a nine-game road trip ... The Pirates have lost five of their last six ... Carpenter left the game after the seventh inning because of lightheadedness ... Wacha scattered five hits over 6 2/3 scoreless innings ... Pittsburgh starter Vance Worley allowed one run on four hits over six innings of work.