ST. LOUIS (AP) — Trevor Williams figured he might be in for a long night.

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ right-hander surrendered a walk and a double to the first two St. Louis hitters he faced Wednesday.

“It was a little terrifying,” Williams admitted.

The hottest pitcher in the National League had no reason to worry.

Williams bounced back from the rough beginning to record six strong innings, Starling Marte had an RBI single in the sixth, and the Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0.

Williams (11-9) gave up three hits while striking out a career-high eight— all swinging.

“He did a great job hitting the corners,” St. Louis shortstop Paul DeJong said. “His ball was moving a lot of different ways.”

Williams has allowed just four earned runs over his last eight starts and improved to 5-2 with an 0.75 ERA during that stretch. He has a major-league best eight starts of at least five innings without allowing a run.

“He had to roll up his sleeves in that first inning,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “He doesn’t get mauled at the plate and he’s tough to square up. His fastball was especially effective tonight.”

Williams got out of the early jam with two strikeouts and a nifty over-the-shoulder catch by second baseman Adam Frazier.

“He doesn’t make that play, you never know what happens after that,” Williams said. “We were just executing pitches from there on.”

Marte lifted a bloop single to left field off Miles Mikolas (13-4) to bring in Jordy Mercer with the first run. Gregory Polanco followed with a run-scoring single to help Pittsburgh win for just the second time in eight games.

“We got some hits, got some action in that inning,” Hurdle said.

Edgar Santana and Keone Kela each pitched an inning, and Felipe Vazquez got the last three outs to complete the five-hitter and get his 28th save in 32 chances.

Polanco, Frazier, and Corey Dickerson had two hits each for the Pirates.

The Cardinals, who dropped to 16-4 in their last 20, are now 4 1/2 games behind first-place Chicago in the NL Central. They hold the first wild card spot and have a half-game lead over Milwaukee.

St. Louis fell to 27-13 under manager Mike Shildt, who took over for Mike Matheny on July 15. Shildt was rewarded with a two-year contract on Tuesday.

Mikolas gave up two runs and eight hits over five innings. He struck out five and walked one.

“I think out of a couple hits they got, they hit one or two hard,” Mikolas said. “I don’t want to say I’m a victim of bad luck, but a couple of those, a couple of feet this way or that way, I don’t think they’re scoring at all.”

The Pirates are 12-19 after winning 11 straight from July 11-24.

St. Louis infielder Matt Carpenter left the game in the fourth inning with a stomach ailment.

UP NEXT

Pirates RHP Joe Musgrove (5-7, 3.56) will face St. Louis RHP John Gant (5-5, 3.76) in the final game of the three-game set on Thursday. Musgrove is 2-2 with 2.92 ERA in six road starts.