Zack Gelof had four hits and Paul Blackburn pitched seven scoreless inning as the Oakland Athletics snapped a nine-game road losing streak and avoided a sweep in St. Louis with an 8-0 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday night.

Blackburn (3-3) turned in the longest outing of his season, allowing six hits, with eight strikeouts and one walk.

The A’s, who have the worst record in the majors at 34-87, snapped the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. St. Louis is last in the NL Central at 54-67.

Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore (2-5) allowed six runs, five earned, in 4 1/3 innings. He gave up 10 hits, struck out five and walked three.

Liberatore’s struggles came after the best start of his career in which he pitched eight scoreless innings and struck out seven against Tampa Bay on Thursday.

The A’s jumped on Liberatore early, batting around in the first inning. Carlos Pérez singled home Gelof, Jordan Diaz followed with a two-run double, and Shea Langeliers added an RBI single to make it 4-0.

Gelof added to the Oakland lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

The A’s added runs on a Seth Brown sacrifice fly in the fifth and on a Gelof double in the sixth.

Tyler Soderstrom capped the scoring with his first career pinch-hit home run, a 454-foot blast off Casey Lawrence in the ninth.