TG Fantasy Baseball

PITTSBURGH (AP) — By his own admission, J.A. Happ can get inside his head too much sometimes, particularly when the St. Louis Cardinals left-hander faces the same team over and over.

Taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates for the third time in 17 days, the 38-year-old took a deep breath, relaxed and let the guys behind him do most of the hard work.

Tommy Edman hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs, Paul Goldschmidt had three hits and the Cardinals made a handful of spectacular defensive plays to hold on for a 4-3 win on Friday night.

Edman went deep off Dillon Peters (0-2) to finish a three-run outburst in the fifth and the St. Louis bullpen — which imploded on Thursday — kept Happ unbeaten since St. Louis got him from Minnesota at the trade deadline. Alex Reyes overcame a leadoff single by Anthony Alford in the ninth to pick up his 29th save.

Happ (8-6) improved to 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA in five starts with the Cardinals, allowing two runs on three hits in 5 2/3 innings with three walks and four strikeouts.

A perfectly executed pickoff throw by catcher Yadier Molina in the fourth, a diving grab by Edman at second base in the fifth and a strike from center fielder Harrison Bader to throw out Colin Moran at the plate to end the eighth helped the Cardinals bounce back from a miserable 11-7 loss to the Pirates on Thursday.

"I can’t say enough about the defense,” Happ said. "Yadi had that pickoff that was huge today, too. Our outfielders have done a great job. Bader’s out there flying around every night. You try to rely on those guys.”

Pittsburgh has managed five runs in three games this month against the player who was a key addition for the 2015 Pirates team that won 98 games.

Those days are long gone in Pittsburgh. Happ, however, finds himself in the same position now as...