ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcell Ozuna regained his swing in time to be in the middle of a breakout rally by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Paul Goldschmidt hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning, Ozuna followed with a two-run homer and the Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2 on Friday night.

Goldschmidt’s single went under the glove of Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman, scoring Dexter Fowler to break a 2-all tie. Five pitches later, Ozuna drove a 99 mph fastball from Richard Rodriguez (3-5) into the left field bullpen for his second homer in two games. The Cardinals tacked on an extra run when Paul DeJong reached on an error by José Osuna and scored on Matt Carpenter’s sacrifice fly.

Runs have been hard to come by for the Cardinals of late. The four-run rally in the eighth snapped a 54-inning stretch without scoring multiple runs in an inning.

Ozuna, who was activated from the injured list last Saturday after missing 28 games due to fractured fingers in his right hand, drove in four runs.

The rally made a winner out of Carlos Martínez (3-2), who pitched the final 1 1/3 innings as the Cardinals snapped a five-game losing streak.

Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson threw a season-low 49 pitches through four innings. He gave up two runs on six hits and didn’t walk or strike out anyone.

UP NEXT

Pirates: RHP Joe Musgrove (8-10, 4.69) gets the start in the second of a three-game series at St. Louis on Saturday night. He is 1-5 with a 7.39 ERA in six career starts against the Cardinals.

Cardinals: RHP Adam Wainwright (7-8, 4.50) will look to continue his strong season at home, where he is 5-2 with a 2.26 ERA in 10 starts. His 34 career starts and 182 strikeouts against Pittsburgh are the most among active pitchers.