By Jeremy Kahn

ST. LOUIS-Yadier Molina is by far the most popular St. Louis Cardinals player at the present time, and his heroics have proved it.

Molina hit a solo home run off of Hunter Strickland in the bottom of the eighth inning, as the Cardinals defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-3 before a crowd of 40,278 at Busch Stadium.

“Good club we are playing they found a way to win, and that is why their record is what it is, they scratched and clawed for that run,” said Bruce Bochy.

It was the 100th career home run for Molina, who is in his ninth full season with the Cardinals and is the owner of two World Series rings.

Kevin Siegrist pitched one inning to pickup his second win of the series and is now 5-0 on the season, as he also picked up the victory in Monday’s 2-1 victory.

Trevor Rosenthal pitched a perfect ninth save, including getting pinch hitter Madison Bumgarner on strikes to end the game for his 38th save of the season.

Strickland went one inning, as he allowed one run on one walk and also struck out a batter, as he fell to 2-3 on the season.

The Cardinals got the scoring going in the bottom of the first inning, as Molina singled to right field to score Jhonny Peralta; however on the play, Molina was thrown at second base by Buster Posey after Justin Maxwell attempted to get Peralta.

Stephen Piscotty, who attended Amador Valley in Pleasanton and graduated from Stanford hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the third inning.

It would have been the second home run of the game for Piscotty, but Juan Perez made a leaping basket catch to rob Piscotty of the home run.

“I think it was going to be a home run, and it was close for myself to make a great catch,” said Perez.

Matt Cain went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits, walking one and striking out six. Cain was also big at the plate as well, as he picked up his first run batted in since May 16, 2013 when he hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth inning to score Brandon Crawford from third base.

Cain is the first Giants pitcher to have a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly in the same game since Noah Lowry on August 22, 2005.

Crawford extended his career-high hitting streak up to 13 games, as he singled to leadoff the inning against Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia.

Kelby Tomlinson also continues his hot hitting, as he extended his hitting streak up to six games, as he drove in Perez with the third Giants run of the evening.

The Cardinals tied up the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Matt Carpenter hit a ground ball to Tomlinson at second and the throw home to Andrew Susac to get Tommy Pham was not held on by Susac and the Cardinals tied up the game.

“A bang banger at home, and you have to keep in mind that you have to get passed it,” said Susac.

Despite the loss, the Giants remained two games behind the Los Angeles a Dodgers after the Dodgers were swept by the Oakland A’s 5-2 at the Coliseum.

NOTES: Bumgarner was the first Giants pitcher to get a hit as a pinch-hitter and score a run in the same inning since Don Robinson hit a pinch-hit home run off of Bruce Hurst of the San Diego Padres on June 19, 1990, this according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Jake Peavy will take the ball in the opener of the four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, while Charlie Morton will go to the mound for the Pirates.