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Cardinals beat Pirates 5-2

The month of August has been great for rookie pitcher Jack Flaherty and the St. Louis Cardinals.
 
Flaherty allowed just one run in seventh innings and Jose Martinez and Tyler O'Neill homered and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 Tuesday night in Mike Shildt's first game since being promoted to full-time manager.
 
Flaherty (8-6) retired his first 12 batters and gave up one run and four hits with no walks. He is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in five August starts. Flaherty has allowed only 14 hits and three runs in 32 innings, walking nine and striking out 38 batters in those starts.
 
A meeting two weeks ago with Cardinals legend Bob Gibson inspired Flaherty.
 
Flaherty improved to 3-1 against the Pirates.
 
The Cardinals have won six of seven and are 20-5 in August. Earlier in the day, St. Louis took off the interim tag on Shildt, who was put in charge after Mike Matheny was fired last month a day before the All-Star break.
 
St. Louis is 27-12 under Shildt. He was rewarded with a contract through 2020 after guiding the Cards back into playoff contention.
 
The Pirates have lost eight of 10.
 
Bud Norris pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 32 opportunities.
 
Martinez hit a two-run homer in the first off Ivan Nova (7-9). Martinez connected for his 16th homer after Matt Carpenter reached base on an infield single.
 
O'Neill hit a 436-foot homer into the left field bleachers in the fourth inning for a 4-0 lead. Martinez singled ahead of O'Neil's drive.
 
Josh Bell scored both runs for the Pirates. He doubled in the fifth and Colin Moran hit an RBI single.
 
Bell drew a leadoff walk from reliever Jordan Hicks in the eighth, took third on a bloop single by Moran and scored on a double play.
 
Paul DeJong was hit by a pitch to start the St. Louis eighth and an apparent two-run homer by Jedd Gyorko was overturned in a crew chief review. Gyorko was given a double and he was pulled because of discomfort in his left groin. Greg Garcia's single made it 5-2.
 
Gyorko said he hurt himself leaving the batter's box. He said it's ''tightness'' and he will be looked at Wednesday.

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