St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn acknowledges the crowd as he comes out of the game in the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 9, 2014. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Lance Lynn acknowledges the crowd as he comes out of the game in the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 9, 2014. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

For the third straight year, Lance Lynn has reached double digit victories before the All-Star break as the Cardinals won their third straight over the Pirates in a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night.  With the slumping Brewers losing again to Philadelphia, their lead over the Cardinals is down to just two games.  The Cardinals will go for the series sweep on Thursday night.

Kolten Wong homered for the second straight game and Matt Adams had three hits and two RBIs.  The Pirates had won 12 of 15 coming into this series, but dropped the first two games thanks to the right side of the Cardinals infield that delivered game-winning, ninth-inning homers by Adams and Wong.  Matt Holliday had two hits, two walks and an RBI and Jhonny Peralta had an RBI double for St. Louis.

Lynn (10-6) allowed two runs and six hits in 6.2 innings.  His 32 wins before the All-Star break over the last three season is tied with Chesterfield, Mo. native Max Scherzer over that same stretch.  The last Cardinals pitcher to win at least ten games before the break in three straight seasons is Bob Gibson, who won 34 from ’68-’70.

All-Star catcher Yadier Molina sprained his right thumb on a slide and was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the third inning. Molina slid feet-first into third base advancing on a groundout in the second and came up shaking the right hand as it appeared to jam as he put his hand on the ground.  Results of the MRI were not available and the team will re-evaluate the injury on Thursday.