The St. Louis Cardinals needed a ninth inning rally to come back and defeat the Athletics 5-4 Thursday afternoon at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif.

The A’s took an early lead, with Nick Kurtz crushing a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the first against Michael McGreevy. That would be the only damage allowed by McGreevy, who went six innings, giving up that lone run on five hits and a walk.

The Redbirds tied the game in the fifth with a solo homer Victor Scott II, and took the lead in the following inning with Jordan Walker’s 12th blast of the season and a Nolan Gorman RBI single.

The Cardinals went to Ryne Stanek in the seventh, who immediately gave up a solo homer to Zack Gelof with one out. Stanek walked the next batter before being lifted from the game for JoJo Romero. Romero then gave up two more hits, including a go-ahead two-run single off the bat of Shea Langeliers to give the Athletics a 4-3 lead.

The lead held until the ninth, when the Cardinals rallied for a pair of runs courtesy of an RBI single from Iván Herrera and an RBI double from Walker, which proved to be the game-winner. Riley O’Brien picked up his 13th save with a scoreless ninth, recording two punchouts.

St. Louis improves to 25-18, tied for second in the NL Central and 2.5 games back of Chicago. The Cardinals return home Friday to host the Kansas City Royals for the start of a weekend I-70 series. Michael Wacha starts for KC, while Dustin May will go for the Cardinals. Pregame coverage begins at 6:30, with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. on KMMO FM 102.9.