For all the Pirates’ struggles at the plate this year, one theme has emerged: They’re a better team in the later innings. That remained true on Thursday afternoon, even when the later innings came earlier than usual.

The Bucs’ bats came alive as the first of Pittsburgh’s two seven-inning games against St. Louis went into an extra, eighth inning at Busch Stadium. The Pirates scored three times against reliever John Gant, and Richard Rodríguez closed out their 4-3 win over the Cardinals.

• Box score

The Pirates felt like their scuffling lineup turned a corner when they put up 24 runs in a weekend sweep of the Brewers at PNC Park, but they turned that corner and ran into a brick wall by the name of Lucas Giolito on Tuesday night. After being swept by the White Sox in a two-game series, the first half of Thursday’s doubleheader was a welcome turn of events for Pittsburgh.

“We’re on our way. We’re going in the right direction. We’re making strides,” left fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “So it’ll turn here soon. Hopefully we’re on the right path.”

Right-hander Chad Kuhl continued to pitch well in his return from Tommy John surgery, holding St. Louis to one run on four hits and four walks over six efficient innings. It was his first six-inning outing since June 15, 2018, and the 81-pitch performance lowered his ERA to 2.52 after six appearances.

“I think I've done some really good things. Mechanically, I’ve made some really good changes to help me be around the zone a little bit more,” Kuhl said. “I feel really good. I don't really know if there's a certain way I'm supposed to be feeling, but I feel really good every time I'm out there. It’s just getting into that baseball shape, where every five days you're out there for as long as you can go. I'm really happy with where I'm at right now and I'm excited to see where we go from here.”

But the Pirates only managed to support Kuhl with one run against Cardinals lefty Kwang Hyun Kim in his six innings on the mound, and a scoreless seventh sent the game to extras. The new rules this season hadn’t been particularly kind to the Bucs, despite their tendency to rally between the seventh and the ninth, as they entered Thursday without a win in four extra-inning games this season.

Maybe all they needed was to have extra innings take place before the ninth, not after.

The Pirates elected to have the speedy Jarrod Dyson pinch-run as the automatic runner at second base to begin the eighth. He came around to score on Cole Tucker’s bloop single to center, putting Pittsburgh ahead, but the rally didn’t end there.

Josh Bell worked a two-out walk, his second of the game. Shortening up and protecting the zone with two strikes, Reynolds smacked a single to center that brought home Tucker. Then catcher Jacob Stallings hit a chopper that Cardinals third baseman Brad Miller couldn’t corral, and Bell scored from second base to complete the three-run inning.

“Especially now, with how extra innings are, Bryan’s hit was just huge to extend the lead to two. It was great,” Stallings said. “We haven’t gotten many breaks, it doesn’t feel like, lately. We hit about, I don’t know, 20 balls to the warning track, so maybe we deserved to find some holes. But yeah, it was great.”

Those insurance runs gave Rodríguez, unofficially the closer while Keone Kela is sidelined, some necessary breathing room in the bottom of the eighth. Dexter Fowler, the Cardinals’ automatic runner, advanced on a Dylan Carlson single and scored on Kolten Wong’s sacrifice fly to Reynolds, who made a sliding catch down the left-field line.

“If I hadn’t slid,” Reynolds said afterward, “I would have gone face-first into the wall.”

After Tommy Edman reached on a single to center, Paul Goldschmidt slapped an RBI single that ricocheted off Rodríguez’s foot and into shallow right field. But Rodríguez bounced back, striking out left-handed hitters Miller and Max Schrock to seal his second save.

“That ball [hit by Goldschmidt] couldn’t have been going to Adam Frazier any more at second base. I was just kind of like, ‘Oh man, is this for real right now?’” Stallings said. “Those were [Rodríguez’s] best six fastballs of the day. ... I didn’t think he had his best stuff at the beginning of the inning. There late, he really hunkered down.”