ST. LOUIS — When a leadoff walk in the seventh inning put a runner on base as the Cardinals sought to take a lead Thursday against the Pirates, Thomas Saggese powered them to it — and Jordan Walker furthered it an at-bat later.

Batting with Masyn Winn on first base after Winn was walked by Pirates righty Yohan Ramirez, Saggese belted a double that hit off the wall in center field to break a 1-1 tie. On the very next pitch Ramirez threw, Walker lifted a sweeper thrown on the outer half of the plate for a two-run homer that sailed 404 feet to center field during the Cardinals’ 4-1 win over Pittsburgh at Busch Stadium.

The pair of extra-base hits by two of the team's youngest hitters helped the Cardinals (66-69) to a four-game series split against the Pirates.

The three runs provided by Walker and Saggese came after Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas held the Pirates to one run and Kyle Leahy totaled four strikeouts across two hitless innings of relief. The win in the series finale was sealed by a hold from Riley O’Brien and a save from JoJo Romero.

Charged with five runs in 2 2/3 innings in his previous start, Mikolas allowed one run on a 440-foot homer in the first inning but kept Pittsburgh scoreless after. He worked around traffic to get through the first and second innings before nine of the 10 batters he faced through the final three innings of the five he provided Thursday.

Before the Cardinals tallied three runs in the seventh inning to take the lead, they were held to one run on four hits and a walk by Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft. The lone run the Cardinals scored against the righty in his 5 2/3 innings came in the third inning on a double by Ivan Herrera that ended with Herrera getting tagged out on the bases after he took too wide a turn around second base and was caught in a rundown.

Navigating early traffic

After giving up a tape-measure solo home run on the first pitch he threw to former Cardinals teammate Tommy Pham with one out in the first inning, Mikolas had to pitch through traffic on the bases to get through the first and second frames.

A pop out and fly out helped him calm a stressful first frame. An inning later, the 37-year-old righty kept the Pirates quiet.

Following a hit by pitch of Bryan Reynolds and a double by Nick Gonzales that put two runners in scoring position during the first inning, Mikolas placed a change-up below the strike zone that got Oneil Cruz to chase. Cruz hit a weak pop-up caught by shortstop Masyn Winn. During the next at-bat, Mikolas’ 88.2-mph slider thrown on the outer half of the plate to Joey Bart got Bart to fly out to center field.

In the second inning, a sharply hit single by Jack Suwinski and a walk to Liover Peguero put two Pirates on base, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s sacrifice bunt advanced them to second and third base.

Dealing with multiple runners on base for a second consecutive inning, Mikolas worked a 2-1 count even with a slider that caught the inner half of the strike zone to lefty Spencer Horowitz. Mikolas then got Horowitz to ground a ball back to him on a curveball thrown to the outer half of home plate.

To complete a second escape job, Mikolas put Pham into a 1-2 count with a sinker and fastball called for strikes. A 94.7-mph fastball located at the top of the strike zone got Pham to whiff for the inning-ending out.

Nootbaar gets on, gets in

Entering Thursday hitless in his previous 19 at-bats, Nootbaar had his hitless streak reach 20 consecutive at-bats when a 102.7-mph line drive hit off Ashcraft’s glove and resulted in a groundout. The hitless skid was snapped two innings later.

When he faced Ashcraft in the third inning, Nootbaar extended his at-bat by fouling off a 3-2 92.3-mph slider thrown low and inside and lined a single on the seventh pitch he saw.

The line drive, which jumped off Nootbaar’s bat at 95.2 mph, represented the second hit of the afternoon for the Cardinals. Nootbaar added to his afternoon with a single in the sixth inning that had a 103.4-mph exit velocity and doubled in the seventh inning on a ball he hit with 101.8-mph exit velocity.

Leahy quiets Pirates

Having gone five outings since his last scoreless outing, Leahy had just two balls put in play against him when he pitched the sixth and seventh innings of Thursday’s finale.

Leahy recorded an out on a fly out against the first batter he faced and, after allowing a walk to Cruz, induced a groundout against Bart.

A swinging strikeout of Suwinski represented the first of the four the righty collected against the final five batters he faced.

Leahy opened the seventh inning by falling behind 3-1 to Peguero but landed back-to-back fastballs that reached 96 mph for called strikes to set Peguero down. He got ahead of Kiner-Falefa with a 96.9-mph fastball and saw Kiner-Falefa off a sinker clocked at 96.5 mph. After he couldn’t get Kiner-Falefa to chase on a sweeper, a second sweeper thrown low and away got a whiff for strike three.

To bookend his outing, Leahy retired Pham on four pitches. He finished the at-bat with a 96.7-mph fastball he dotted on the low outside corner.

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