Rich Hill provides the deepest start for the Pirates, who swept the Cardinals for their fifth straight win

Rich Hill treats every day he was scheduled to start as the perfect day to play, so the live-streamed 11:35 a.m. start on Peacock wasn’t for the 43-year-old left fielder.

After pitching the deepest start of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Hill received a standing ovation Sunday from 22,947 at PNC Park when he left with a two-out lead in the seventh inning.

“He was the perfect guy,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “The fact that we have three rookies in our rotation, we have a veteran guy who knows how to prepare, how to prepare himself. If we are going to have a game like that, I think he is the guy who will because he knows how to prepare.”

Ji Hwan Bae’s single in the first period gave the Pirates an early lead, and David Bednar hit his fourth straight as the Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals.

It was the fifth straight win for the Pirates (31-27), who moved into a provisional first place game in the NL Central with the Milwaukee Brewers (31-27), who play the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.

It was the first time the Pirates had swept the Cardinals at home since April 27-29, 2018, when Nick Kingham pitched a perfect game in the seventh inning of a 5-0 win in his major league debut. The sweep of the champions of the mainstream division was a good measuring stick for the Buccaneers.

“They have a very good squad, let’s face it. That’s a good lineup, and it’s always been very good, and I think that’s something that clearly has to be assessed,” said Hill. “We know we’ve got a very good team. We’ve had meetings here and we talk about it and build it up and we keep going out there and making that effort every night and we understand that (if) we keep putting in the work, it’s going to be a show every night on the field.”

The Pirates loaded the bases in the first inning against Miles Mikulas (4-2) on singles by Brian Reynolds, Jack Swinski, and Cibrian Hayes, and Bay hit a leadoff single to shallow center to lead off Reynolds and Swinski for a 2-0 lead.

Hayes (3 for 4) and Bay (2 for 4) were stranded when Rodolfo Castro stood his ground. The Pirates left nine runners on base, including runners on second and third on the fifth inning on another Castro home run to first.

However, the Cardinals were unable to match Hill (5-5), who struck out six while allowing four hits and three walks with one batter while throwing 62 of his 96 runs batted in in ​6 2/3 innings. It was his longest game since hitting 11 goals in seven scoreless games for Boston in a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay on August 27.

Hill allowed only two hits through the first six rounds, although he walked the lead in each of the second, third, and fourth rounds.

“It definitely wasn’t the recipe we set out,” said Buccaneers catcher Austin Hedges, who had two triples. “I think he just needed to settle in every half today. Obviously the results have been great.”

Hill managed to claw his way out of trouble each time, retiring 11 consecutive batters before giving up his one-run home run to Andrew Kneisner, who drove the cutter 1-0 419 feet right to cut it to 2-1. After Tommy Edman followed with a single to left, Shelton turned to Dauri Moreta, who hit Paul Goldschmidt to leave Edman stranded.

Shelton emphasized the importance of Hill’s handling of the innings after the Pirates used eight pitchers in Saturday’s 4-3 victory.

“It was huge. That’s what seasoned rookies do,” Shelton said. “He’s very aware of how we use the bullpen. He went out and pitched, and was able to mix and match against the right-handed lineup except for Gorman, who bats left-handed. He kept them balanced all day.”

The Pirates got a scoreless eighth from Johan Ramirez and turned to Bednar in the ninth for the third straight game. Bednar gave up a single to Luken Baker, who hit his first home run in the second inning, but right fielder Connor Joe caught a fly ball by Jordan Walker. Bednar Kneizner hit his 13th save of the season as the Pirates followed May 8-18 with a 3-0 start in June with the Oakland A’s visiting for a three-game series starting Monday.

“It’s huge,” Bednar said. “They’re a contender in the squad. We started the month strong and now we’re just going to try to keep it going.”