St Louis scored two runs in the second, third and sixth innings to bounce back from their 12-1 thumping at the hands of the Padres on Wednesday but it was the deals finalised by the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics that made the big headlines on Thursday.
Detroit Tigers and Oakland both strengthened their pitching stocks on the final day for non-waiver trades, with an eye on pushing deep into the play-offs.
The A's brought in two-time World Series champion pitcher Jon Lester, as well as outfielder Jonny Gomes, from the Boston Red Sox but had to give up powerful hitter Yoenis Cespedes to get the deal done.
Detroit snagged the highly rated David Price from the Tampa Bay Rays, with the 28-year-old having won a Cy Young Award as the American League's (AL) best pitcher in 2012.
As part of the deal to acquire Price, the Tigers sent centre-fielder Austin Jackson to the Seattle Mariners, who dispatched Nick Franklin to Tampa Bay with the Rays also picking up Detroit's Drew Smyly.
It led to the surreal situation of Jackson leaving the field during the seventh inning of the Tigers' 7-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox, as he was no longer a Detroit player.
"I pretty much kind of knew what was going on," Jackson said.
"Just kind of a sad moment right there knowing that last run off the field, it was pretty tough with all your team-mates that you played with."
In San Diego, St Louis won the third of a three-game series with the Padres with Oscar Taveras' two-run homer getting the Cardinals going in the second inning.
The Padres responded with two home runs of their own with Jedd Gyorko and Will Venable clearing the fence, but St Louis pulled away in the third and sixth innings to claim their first win in three games.
The victory saw the Cardinals draw within two games of the Milwaukee Brewers at the top of the National League's Central division.
In Detroit, the White Sox led 3-0 before the Tigers responded with four runs of their own.
But four runs over the final five innings saw Chicago triumph over their AL Central rivals.
The Tigers remain top of the AL Central standings but their advantage was reduced to four games after the second-placed Kansas City Royals won 6-3 against the Minnesota Twins.
The Cleveland Indians remain third after a 6-5 loss to Seattle, while the White Sox are fourth after of the Twins.
The Chicago Cubs won 3-1 at home to the Colorado Rapids, while the Los Angeles Angels played out 12 scoreless innings with the Baltimore Orioles before prevailing 1-0.
In other results, the Philadelphia Phillies cruised past the Washington Nationals 10-4, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Miami Marlins 3-1, the Toronto Blue Jays edged out the Houston Astros 6-5, the Arizona Diamondbacks won 7-4 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Los Angeles Dodgers trumped the Atlanta Braves 2-1.