ST. LOUIS _ Ryan McBroom, who delivered the game-winning hit in the eighth inning as an outfielder for the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, didn't take his first at-bat of the game until the eighth inning on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
But, pinch hitting for Cam Gallagher, who had provided both previous Royals runs with a two-run homer, McBroom again broke a tie, this time lacing a 420-foot homer to deep left off lefthander Genesis Cabrera.
The Royals would score two more runs in the top of the ninth but the Cardinals, with two outs, rallied for four runs in their half to pull out an improbable 6-5 win, with Kolten Wong's bases-loaded walk the game-winner.
For the second night in succession, Royals manager Mike Matheny was forced to call on his bullpen before the fourth inning was complete. But, after six Royals relievers fired 6 1/3 scoreless innings on Tuesday, seven relievers, many of them the same, were nearly as good Wednesday. Nearly.
Former Cardinal closer Trevor Rosenthal, who gained the save on Tuesday, inherited a bases-loaded, one-out spot from Josh Staumont in the eighth inning on Wednesday. Six fastballs later, ranging from 95 to 97 miles an hour, Dylan Carlson and Wong had lugged their bats back to the dugout.
Rosenthal was given some more room with which to work in the ninth when Whit Merrifield doubled off the glove of left fielder Tyler O'Neill, who was racing to his left to make a catch that would have ended the inning.
Rosenthal, working for the third day in succession, walked Paul Goldschmidt, allowed a double by Brad Miller and walked Paul DeJong with one out in the Cardinals' ninth to fill the bases. After receiving a visit from manager Mike Matheny, Rosenthal struck out pinch hitter Max Schrock before leaving the game for lefthander Randy Rosario, who hit Yadier Molina to force in a run and allowed a two-run, bad-hop single by O'Neill.
Still seeking his first win since Sept. 16, Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson was as tedious through the first three innings Wednesday as he was efficient last Friday when he tossed 4 2/3 innings of one-hit ball against Cincinnati. But then he turned efficient again, retiring the final 10 men he faced in a six-inning stint
Hudson walked three Kansas City hitters in the first three frames and took considerable time between pitches otherwise. A double play extricated him from the first but Royals catcher Gallagher swatted his first homer of the season, a two-run shot in the third, for the first scoring.
The Royals threatened further in the inning when Hudson walked two more hitters but held Kansas City at two runs as Maikel Franco flied to center.
Goldschmidt's sacrifice fly, on a ball that pinned left fielder Alex Gordon to the fence, cut the lead in half in the Cardinals' third. Wong had walked and gone to third on Tommy Edman's single.
After Wong scored on Goldschmidt's drive, Edman stole his first base of the season and went to third on Gallagher's error. But he was left as Brad Miller fanned for the second time and Paul DeJong flied to left.
Cardinals rookie Dylan Carlson doubled in Matt Carpenter in the fourth with Carlson's first hit with a man in scoring position in 15 at-bats this season. But he would strike out in three other spots with runners in scoring territory.
Carpenter scored the tying run after being hit by a pitch for a second time by Royals starter Jakob Junis and then advancing to second on a wild pitch. Junis, just off the injured list after having back spasms, was replaced by Jake Newberry, who entered Tuesday's game in the third inning as the Royals' first reliever.
Hudson picked up the pace markedly in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, setting the side down in order in all three, with nary a ball leaving the clutches of an infielder or catcher Yadier Molina.
Former Cardinal Greg Holland, who wasn't effective on Monday night, relieved for the Royals in the fifth and allowed a couple of long, loud fly balls and Ian Kennedy worked around sixth-inning singles by Molina and O'Neill by catching Carlson looking at a third strike to end the inning.
Cabrera relieved in the seventh with the departure of Hudson, who had thrown 83 pitches, 49 of them strikes. Like Hudson over his last three innings. Cabrera, fast becoming a higher leverage pitcher in the Cardinals' bullpen, faced only three hitters in a perfect inning.
Goldschmidt, after fouling off a handful of full-count pitches, walked for the 11th consecutive game with two out in the seventh. It was a personal high for Goldschmidt, who is five short of Jack Clark's club mark set in 1987.
After Cabrera, in his second inning, allowed a double to Merrifield following McBroom's homer, Alex Reyes prevented further damage, getting two popups and a groundout, walking Ryan O'Hearn intentionally in the process.
