The St. Louis Cardinals avoided disaster in the ninth to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 on Friday, May 23.

Both starting pitchers looked sharp early, getting through the first three innings scoreless.

The Diamondbacks finally broke through in the fourth with a solo homer against Miles Mikolas. That would be the only mistake in the game for Mikolas, who went six innings, giving up a run on four hits with four strikeouts.

The Cardinals came alive in the sixth against Zac Gallen, tying the game after Ivan Herrera drew a bases-loaded walk. Later in the inning, Nolan Arenado would clear the bases with a three-run triple to make it 4-1.

Ryan Helsely came on in the ninth and gave up a two-run bomb to Gabriel Moreno, but he would escape with his tenth save of the season.

St. Louis improves to 28-23, three games behind Chicago in the NL Central. The Cardinals will continue to clash against Arizona this afternoon. First pitch begins at 1:15 p.m. at Busch Stadium.