The Pittsburgh Pirates sent all nine batters to the plate in the top of the first inning, as starting pitching once again let down the St Louis Cardinals in Tuesday, Aug. 26’s 8-3 loss at Busch Stadium.

Starter Andre Pallante wasn’t able to record his first out until giving up a sacrifice fly to Henry Davis that scored the Pirates’ fifth run of the inning. Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski had RBI doubles in the inning, while Andrew McCutcheon added an RBI single. Reynolds would add another RBI double in the second, aided by a fielding error by Lars Nootbaar, while Oneil Cruz brought home Reynolds with a groundout. Pittsburgh would wrap up their scoring with a Davis home run in the third.

The Cardinals’ offense arrived later, with Nolan Gorman hitting a two-run home run in the fourth. Willson Contreras, who was allowed to play while his appeal of a six-game suspension following his reaction to Monday’s ejection is pending, delivered a ground out in the sixth to bring home Nootbaar.

Pallante went five innings in the loss, with all but one of his eight allowed runs earned on eight hits and one walk; he struck out three. Mitch Keller went six innings in the win, fanning nine while allowing three runs on three hits and a walk.

The loss pits the Cardinals at 65-68, 6.5 games behind the Mets for the third wild card spot. The Cardinals will have Sonny Gray starting Wednesday, with first pitch at 6:45 p.m.