After leaning upon rookie right-hander Michael Wacha to pitch them out of Pittsburgh, past L.A.'s Clayton Kershaw and into the World Series, the Cardinals' offense found a way to return the favor on Thursday night.

This time, they bailed him out.

On a night when Red Sox cleanup hitter David Ortiz marred an otherwise dominant effort from the 22-year-old Wacha with a sixth-inning blast, the Cardinals answered -- albeit with some help from the Red Sox's defense -- with three runs an inning later. That provided the Cards' bullpen with a two-run cushion, one it held with relative ease in order to leave Boston on a high.

With a 4-2 victory in front of 38,436 in Game 2 of the World Series, St. Louis heads home having split the pair of games at Fenway Park. It was a critical win for the Cardinals, who did not want to go back to Busch Stadium without having won at least once behind their top two pitchers.

"You turn the page and you come back the next day and you fight, you try your best and you go out there and expect to win," David Freese said. "Tonight was a big game for us. One-to-one feels good. Being down two games, I'm sure statistically that is a tough feat to come back from."