Cardinals turn to Dustin May against Pirates to stop skid

After dropping three games by a total of four runs while getting swept at home, the St. Louis Cardinals will look for better fortune on the road as they begin a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.

St. Louis has lost four straight and five of six and is tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for fourth in the National League Central, the only division in the majors where every team has a winning record.

Rob Refsnyder hit a tiebreaking solo home run in the top of the ninth inning after successfully challenging a third strike call earlier in the at-bat to give the Seattle Mariners a 3-2 victory over the host Cardinals on Sunday.

"It sucks that you don't win one of these, but when you look at each game individually, there are a lot of positives," St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said.

Rookie JJ Wetherholt hit a solo shot in the third inning, his fifth, while Nathan Church hit his third home run in two games in the sixth. Church had two hits and is batting .406 (13 for 32) in his last nine games, recording at least one hit in eight of them.

"When you look at the series Church had, that's awesome," Marmol said. "And this is a guy; there's just some grit to him. I like his overall mentality, the way he approaches the game. ... He's here to win."

The Cardinals are 1 1/2 games behind third-place Pittsburgh, which took the season series last year, 7-6. That included five wins in six contests at PNC Park.

"We have a big series against the Cardinals coming up. ... Going on the road against Texas and Milwaukee, never really satisfied with 3-3," Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said.

"And the way we played here, against the Brewers, to win a series here, we'll definitely take that going home. Get back home in front of our fans, looking to getting back to Pittsburgh and playing some good baseball against division opponents."

Pittsburgh had won three of five on the road before getting blanked 5-0 by the Brewers on Sunday. It was the third time this season that the Pirates, who struck out a season-high 18 times and had just two hits, were shut out.

Right-hander Dustin May gets the call for St. Louis on Monday. He is 3-2 with a 5.84 ERA in his first season with the Cardinals. In his lone career outing against Pittsburgh, May got the start and gave up seven runs (six earned) in 5 1/3 innings in a loss last August.

May has allowed just one earned run in each of his past three starts, winning each of them. He has brought his ERA down by more than 10 runs during this individual winning streak.

The Pirates will counter with a bullpen game. Left-hander Mason Montgomery, who is 1-0 with a 3.97 ERA in 12 appearances, will start for the second time this season. He hasn't allowed a run in his last seven outings. In two career relief appearances against St. Louis in 2025, he allowed one unearned run over 1 2/3 innings.

--Field Level Media