Pirates beat Cardinals, 5-3

What started as a battle between dominant starting pitchers hinged on a late-inning at-bat between Pedro Alvarez and Kevin Siegrist.

Alvarez delivered, and the Pirates’ 5-3 win against the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park Sunday gave them a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series.

The Cardinals face elimination in Game 4, which takes place Monday at PNC Park. They will send rookie Michael Wacha to the mound opposite Charlie Morton.

The Pirates held a 3-2 lead until the eighth inning, when Carlos Beltran homered to right-center field off Mark Melancon and rendered PNC Park momentarily silent. Beltran’s 16th career postseason homer moved him past Babe Ruth on the all-time list. He is now one behind Jim Thome.

Melancon allowed one home run in 71 regular-season innings, on April 14 against the Cincinnati Reds.

Andrew McCutchen doubled to start the bottom of the eighth, but tried to take third base on Justin Morneau’s ground ball to the left side of the infield and made the first out of the inning at third base. Josh Harrison pinch-ran for Morneau. Marlon Byrd walked after an eight-pitch plate appearance, bringing Pedro Alvarez to the plate, and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny countered with lefty Kevin Siegrist.

Alvarez singled to right field, scoring Harrison, and the Pirates took a lead. Russell Martin’s RBI single added an insurance run.

Francisco Liriano allowed two runs in six innings in his start, striking out five.

St. Louis scored only two runs in 24 innings against Liriano during his three starts against the Pirates this season. He struck out 20 and held the Cardinals to a .127 average without a home run. Liriano also had a 1.47 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 732/3 innings at PNC Park this season, not including his seven-inning, one-run outing against the Cincinnati Reds in Tuesday’s wild-card game.

During three starts against the Pirates, each six inning in length, Cardinals starter Joe Kelly allowed a combined two runs. The Pirates equaled that run total in Sunday’s first inning.

Kelly issued a two-out walk to McCutchen, usually not a harbinger of positive developments. Morneau’s grounder deflected off Kelly for an infield single, putting men on first and second, but Pete Kozma’s late throw in an attempt to get Morneau at first went wide and moved both runners into scoring position.

Byrd took advantage with a two-run single, giving the Pirates an early 2-0 lead.

In stark contrast to his first two innings, Liriano caused as much trouble as he could in the third while still keeping the Cardinals scoreless. Kozma hit a single to left with one out that Starling Marte, whose view of home plate had him looking directly into bright sunlight, did not immediately locate. Once he did, though, he took his time getting the ball in, and Kozma hustled to second with a double.

Kelly struck out, but Liriano’s command took a brief hiatus. He hit Matt Carpenter, the threw a wild pitch to Carlos Beltran that sent Kozma to third. Liriano then walked Beltran to load the bases for Matt Holliday, who sent a hard line drive to the warning track in right field, but Byrd caught it for the final out of the inning.

After a 23-pitch third inning, Liriano needed only nine pitches in the fourth to retire the side in order despite two well-struck balls. He and Kelly switched roles as the game unfolded, with Kelly keeping the Pirates off the bases through the second, third and fourth innings and Liriano losing his control.

Jon Jay singled to start the fifth and Liriano walked Kozma. He struck out Kelly trying to bunt, and Matt Carpenter looking at a 3-2 pitch, but Jay and Kozma executed a double steal, moving both runners into scoring position. Replays made it look as though Russell Martin’s throw beat Jay to the bag, but the play was close. Beltran singled up the middle to score both runners and tie the game at 2-2.

McCutchen’s leadoff walk in the bottom of the sixth set the stage for the Pirates to break the tie. With one out, Marlon Byrd doubled. Kelly intentionally walked Pedro Alvarez to load the bases. He then gave way to Seth Maness and his 68.4 percent ground-ball rate, the second-highest rate for players with at least 60 innings pitched this season.

Maness gave up a long fly ball to Russell Martin, deep enough to score McCutchen and move the Pirates ahead, 3-2.