St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright delivers a pitch to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 7, 2016.  Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright delivers a pitch to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 7, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

This was vintage Adam Wainwright.  He overcame a slow start to grind out seven innings in a 5-1 victory over the Pirates on a humid Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium.  Wainwright threw 113 pitches, 70 for strikes, while allowing just five hits and a walk to go with nine strikeouts.  The Cardinals also got home runs from Randall Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.

The Pirates started rookie Tyler Glasnow who held the Cardinals hitless first time through the order, but then they figured him out. A triple by Aledmys Diaz to lead off the fourth, led to a wild pitch and a 1-1 game.  Grichuk hit his fifth homer of the year in the fifth to make it 2-1 and then after the Cardinals chased Glasnow in the sixth, Piscotty added a three run homer that was eventually overturned by replay.

The Cardinals take the final game of the series to jump back into second place, a half-game up on Pittsburgh.

St. Louis heads to Milwaukee for a weekend series before the All-Star break.