ST. LOUIS (AP) Even Adam Wainwright paused to admire the longest home run by a visiting player at seven-year-old Busch Stadium.

The St. Louis Cardinals pitcher took a quick look at the bleachers beyond the visitor's bullpen where Paul Goldschmidt's 456-foot drive landed in the fourth inning.

``I went `Whoa, that's way out!''' Wainwright said. ``I literally said that out loud because he just mashed it.''

Wainwright (11-10) and three relievers were stingy against the Arizona Diamondbacks the rest of the way, combining on a five-hitter in a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night.

``It was typical Wainwright,'' Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. ``He expands the zone. You look at him, and he gets behind and he's throwing secondary pitches making good pitches.

``He did a good job of managing his bad counts.''

Both Wainwright and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny thought he had far from his best stuff.

``I wasn't as sharp as I have been lately, but you battle through and make pitches,'' Wainwright said. ``I didn't miss over the plate too many times.''

David Freese and Allen Craig homered and Rafael Furcal's two-run triple in the sixth gave the Cardinals a three-run lead.

St. Louis homered twice for the second straight game and will go for a sweep of the three-game series behind 12-game winner Kyle Lohse on Thursday night.

The Cardinals are 5-0 against the Diamondbacks this year and have won seven straight in the series dating to last year. They've won eight of 12 overall and pulled into a second-place tie with Pittsburgh in the NL Central before starting a three-game series at home against the Pirates this weekend.

``We caught the Pirates tonight?'' closer Jason Motte joked, then referenced the Cardinals' climb from 10 1/2 games back for the NL wild card late last August en route to a World Series title.

``If anyone knows, we know a lot of stuff can happen in a month-and-a-half,'' Motte said. ``We've got to come out tomorrow ready to go, ready to handle business.''

Wainwright (11-10) was 0-3 in April before starting to regain his form. He's 4-0 with a 2.04 ERA in his past five starts and his record is above .500 for the first time.

Goldschmidt's first homer in nine games is the fourth-longest overall at Busch, and is 13 feet shy of Matt Holliday's stadium-record homer off the Cubs' Ryan Dempster on July 20.

The Diamondbacks had four singles otherwise, and are 3-44 when they score three or fewer.

``If you just look at the numbers, we have to score three or more to even have a chance,'' Gibson said.

Joe Saunders (6-9) allowed five runs in six innings, the first time the lefty gave up more than three runs in 11 road starts. He entered with a 2.49 road ERA, fourth-best in the league.

Saunders worked the sixth with a swollen pitching thumb after deflecting Holliday's comeback grounder on the last out of the fifth. He left the mound shaking his hand in pain.

``Hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone back out there,'' Saunders said. ``My stubborn (rear end). I won't come out of the game.

``I just didn't have my best stuff there in the sixth. I tried to pitch through it.''

The Diamondbacks (58-59) have lost eight of 11 and dropped below .500 for the first time since they were 49-50 on July 26.

``It's been frustrating. We've played some games we could have won and we're not taking advantage of that right now,'' Chris Johnson said after going 0 for 3. ``We just need to relax, stay calm, and I think we'll be all right.''

Freese ended a 0-for-20 slump with his 16th homer after Carlos Beltran doubled with two outs in the fourth to put the Cardinals up 2-1.

``I had an approach and it worked out,'' Freese said. ``I'll be honest, it felt good for sure.''

Craig hit his 18th to right-center in the fifth and the Cardinals got three straight hits from the bottom of the order capped by Furcal's liner into the right-field corner in the sixth.

Furcal was moved to the bottom of the lineup last week while battling back issues and a slump. He also doubled in the third for his first mulitihit game since July 24.

Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs each worked a scoreless inning. Motte finished for his 27th save in 31 chances.

NOTES: Cardinals C Yadier Molina was out with mid-back tightness and thought prior to the game that he might miss a few games. ... Saunders is 3-8 with a 5.38 ERA in 17 career starts against the NL Central, including 2-3 this year. ... Lohse (12-2, 2.72) has won six straight decisions over nine starts. Trevor Cahill (9-10) seeks his 50th career victory for Arizona. ... Miguel Montero singled his first two trips and is batting .369 (24 for 65) his past 19 games against the Cardinals.