ST. LOUIS — All of the home runs they hit to take a lead or erase a deficit, and the savviest and most important run of the game scored on an out.

With four RBIs already in the game as the Cardinals rallied to overtake the Cubs, Masyn Winn dashed from second on a fly out to center field to score what would become the decisive run of a riveting 8-7 victory against the archrival Cubs on Tuesday. Chicago’s center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong caught a deep fly-ball at the wall and had a celebratory spin away from the field as if that was the final out of the Cardinals’ big inning.

It was not.

Winn raced home around third base to make it bigger.

That four-run inning gave the Cardinals’ bullpen a one-run lead it would hold for 4 1/3 innings, culminating with Ryan Helsley in the ninth inning. The Cubs got the tying run third before Helsley got a ground-ball to third base that Nolan Arenado barehanded – and then rocketed to first for the final out. That play assured Helsley’s 15th save, made Winn’s smart dash the difference, and gave the Cardinals the chance for so much more in the coming days.

The Cardinals took an early lead on Lars Nootbaar’s two-run homer and then began a rally with Winn’s two-run homer. If all of that sounds familiar, it should. The ball has been lively during the series – temperatures are soaring and so are homers – and the Cardinals scored their first 13 runs against the Cubs this week on seven homers.

Two defensive plays shaped the game as well – both of them from right fielder Alec Burleson. In the fifth, he made a sliding catch to take a hit from Crow-Armstrong and keep the tying run from scoring. Burleson knew it was the third out and made sure to control it. In the seventh, Burleson went into foul territory and got caught in the netting to rob an out that ended the inning.

The win assured the Cardinals of at least a split in the four-game visit from the Cubs, but it offered them the opportunity of so much more. The Cardinals have already trimmed the first-place Cubs’ lead down to 2 1/2 games with two to play.

Winn turns PCA pause into run

One of the finest fielders in the majors and the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game – non-Dodgers division – Cubs sensation Crow-Armstrong has been one of the players to stop and watch in the first half this season.

But it cost the Cubs when he did that.

His two-run double still fresh in the box score, Winn stood at second when teammate Burleson tagged a ball to deep center field. Crow-Armstrong tracked the ball down a few feet shy of the wall. With the out safely secure, the young center fielder spun into the wall and slowed into a trot. It was about that time he realized he caught the second out, not the final out.

Winn was already blazing around third.

The Cardinals’ shortstop had tagged up to advance from second, and when third-base coach Ron “Pop” Warner saw Crow-Armstrong turn his back to the field after catching the ball, he urged Winn to keep going. Winn slid in ahead of the throw for the Cardinals’ fourth run of the inning and eighth run of the game.

It was a costly mistake at the time.

Costlier when the Cubs trailed 8-7 after 5 1/2 innings.

Costlier may have been in the top of the seventh inning when Crow-Armstrong elected to bunt with one out and teammates at the corners. Crow-Armstrong has 21 home runs and 61 RBIs, and his but was curious, at best. His speed is superior, but all the bunt did was give the Cardinals the second out without advancing the potential tying run from third.

The next batter flew out, and the difference in the score remained the sacrifice fly Winn created with his opportunistic baserunning.

Gorman snaps streak, ties game

The first dozen runs of the series for the Cardinals scored on six two-run homers, including the first four runs of Tuesday’s game. The first five came from left-handed batters, and then there was Winn adding his two-run shot in the third to bring the Cardinals within a run.

Lars Nootbaar kept the streak going of scoring two-by-two with a two-run homer in the second inning that followed the same recipe as Monday’s game.

A right-handed batter reached base.

A left-handed batter socked them both home.

Willson Contreras’ fourth hit of the series led off the second, and in a blink the Cardinals had a 2-0 lead on Nootbaar’s team-leading 11th homer. An inning later, the Cardinals flip the script.

A left-handed batter reached.

A right-hander drove them both home.

Brendan Donovan opened the third with a single, and Winn followed with his seventh homer and the first two of his RBIs on Tuesday night. That narrowed the Cubs’ lead to 5-4.

That’s where the two birds with one bat trend ended.

One blast did it.

For the third consecutive inning against Cubs starter Jameson Taillon the Cardinals got the leadoff hitter on base, and for the first time it wasn’t the second hitter who then cleared the bases. Gorman opened the fourth inning with a solo homer that knotted the score, 5-5, and sparked the rally that would put the Cardinals ahead. Gorman’s homer was the Cardinals’ seventh of the series already and the first solo shot of the group.

McGreevy’s first real rocky inning

Beckoned from Class AAA Memphis for a third cameo start of the season and his second of the past week, McGreevy encountered his first truly troublesome inning.

All five of the runs that bruised his ERA came in the third inning.

McGreevy’s lone walk of the game prolonged the inning and set up the three-run homer that would break it open. The bottom of the Cubs’ order opened the inning with back-to-back singles before McGreevy slowed the rally with his only strikeout of the start. When leadoff hitter Ian Happ walked, McGreevy had the bases loaded, one out, and the oomph of the Cubs’ lineup coming up.

Kyle Tucker, the Cubs’ All-Star rental (thus far) from Houston, singled home two teammates for the first two runs of the inning. Tucker’s single tied the game, 2-2, and the next batter drove the Cubs ahead for the first time in the series. Seiya Suzuki cleared the bases with his 21st home run of the season for a 5-2 lead.

In the span of six batters, McGreevy allowed as many runs as he had in his previous three appearances for the Cardinals in the majors this season.

What he did next will resonate with the big-league staff.

He regained his footing.

McGreevy got two outs in the infield from the next two batters to end the inning. He retired six straight after allowing the five runs to get the game into the fifth inning and the bullpen into a better position to cover the rest. McGreevy’s ability to regroup meant the bullpen did not get involved on cleanup duty. Instead, the first reliever entered when there were fewer outs to cover and a lead to shepherd.

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