St. Louis, MO – Paul Goldschmidt scorched a go-ahead single in the top of the 14th inning to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks over the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6, in the second test of a four-game set Tuesday at Busch Stadium.
After the Cardinals left runners on the corners in the bottom of the 13th, St. Louis reliever Victor Marte (0-1) issued a pair of walks around a fielder's choice bunt before Goldschmidt ripped a base hit up the middle to plate the deciding run.
"He's been on a role this year for us and we've kind of ridden him," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said of Goldschmidt. "We got in a situation where they had to pitch to him. He's just got a great approach."
Josh Collmenter (2-0) earned the victory after striking out five over four scoreless innings of relief work. Heath Bell worked around a leadoff double in the bottom of the 14th to secure his 10th save.
Goldschmidt finished with three hits, two RBI and a run scored, while A.J. Pollock belted a three-run blast for the Diamondbacks, who had won two straight before dropping Monday's series opener by a 7-1 count.
David Freese collected four hits to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, while Allen Craig clubbed a two-run homer and Shane Robinson added a solo shot for St. Louis, which went a woeful 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
"You want to win these games, especially these long nights," Freese said. "You have to hand it to those guys over there. They want to win every inning. They took care of business tonight."
Neither starter made it through six innings, as St. Louis right-hander Michael Wacha was chased after giving up six runs on 10 hits over 4 2/3 frames, while Arizona southpaw Tyler Skaggs was tagged for five runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings.
The Cards got to Skaggs in the first on Matt Holliday's sacrifice fly, but the young left-hander helped his own cause with an RBI single in the second to tie the game.
Pollock clubbed a three-run shot in the fourth to put the visitors in front before the Cardinals countered with a longball of their own in the bottom half, as Craig launched a two-run shot to left-center field to bring St. Louis within 4-3.
Arizona created some separation in the fifth, as Didi Gregorius smacked a leadoff single and scored on Goldschmidt's double to center.
Goldschmidt then moved to third on a groundout and scored two batters later on Jason Kubel's single to make it 6-3.
However, St. Louis scored a run in each of the next three innings to tie the game, starting with Robinson's leadoff blast in the bottom of the fifth.
In the sixth, Carlos Beltran led off with a single and moved to second on a fly out before stealing third two batters later and scoring on Yadier Molina's base hit to right.
After Ty Wigginton walked and Matt Carpenter was hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh, Beltran laced a game-tying single to left to make it 6-6.
St. Louis had a prime opportunity to win the game in the 13th with runners on the corners and two outs, but Craig flied out to left field to end the inning.
Game Notes
Carpenter extended his hit streak to 13 games and was hit by a pitch three times in the game, marking the first time a Cardinals player has been hit three times in one game ... Skaggs was recalled from Triple-A Reno before the game ... Arizona went 4-for-13 with RISP and left 10 runners on base.
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