Matt Holliday and Randal Grichuk homered the Cardinals pounded out 14 hits to sweep the Pirates with an 8-3 win late Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals finished the weekend outscoring the Pirates 22-7 and extended their lead to three games over their division rival for second place.

The Cardinals are a season high seven games over .500 and remain nine games behind front-running Chicago in the N.L. Central.

Holliday went 3-for-4 including an opposite field homer to right off Pittsburgh starter Jonathan Niese.  Yadier Molina also went 3-for-4 and has added 17 points to his batting average in the last five games, bumping it up to .273