The St Louis Cardinals held off the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium, lifting the Cardinals to second in the NL Central and one game shy of .500.

The Cardinals began the scoring with a two-run home run from Paul Goldschmidt in the third, followed by a Pedro Pagés singles that brought in José Fermín. A pair of singles in the fifth allowed the Pirates to tie the game, but the Cardinals would take the lead for good with Brendan Donovan’s fifth home run of the season, sent to right field in the sixth. Chris Roycroft picked up his first win of the season after getting the last out in the sixth and facing two batters in the seventh, while Lance Lynn went 4.1 innings, charged with three earned runs, four hits and three walks while fanning five.

St Louis are now 33-34, six-and-a-half games behind Milwaukee. The Cardinals have another critical NL Central clash starting this afternoon, as the flock to the North Side of Chicago to take on the Cubs. First pitch from Wrigley Field is 1:20.