ST. LOUIS - Jason Heyward shook off a critical error with a game-tying homer. Peter Bourjos' legs did the rest to ensure a St. Louis Cardinals sweep.

Heyward homered to tie it leading off the ninth inning and Bourjos' slide at the plate upended catcher Jordan Pacheco resulting in a throwing error that allowed the winning run to score in a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night.

"I was going in hard, I had no intention of trying to hurt anybody," Bourjos said. "I was trying to make it tough for them to turn a double play."

Mark Trumbo homered for Arizona, which has lost nine of its last 10 against the Cardinals. The Diamondbacks have re-tooled with former Cardinals Tony La Russa as chief baseball officer, pitching consultant Dave Duncan and first base coach Dave McKay.

Pacheco replaced Tuffy Gosewisch, who jammed his left knee on a groundout in the sixth. Third baseman Yasmany Tomas threw home for a force out on Jhonny Peralta's grounder against Brad Ziegler (0-1) and Pacheco tried for a double play but threw well above first baseman Paul Goldschmidt's head after Bourjos' foot made contact with his back leg.

Pacheco had no issue with the play.

"I tried to get out of there as quick as I could," he said. "He's a fast guy. That's what happens when you have speed on the bases.

"I wish I could say something about it, but it was a good slide."

Nick Ahmed put the Diamondbacks ahead in the sixth scoring from first when Heyward booted the ball on pinch hitter David Peralta's RBI single to right. Heyward popped out to short with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth.

"This game's going to beat you up at times but you've got to put it past you," Heyward said. "It's not about you, it's about your team.

"Thank goodness I was able to tie us up."

Heyward said he'd been caught in-between trying to make the catch on Peralta's hit.

"I try to catch everything all the time," Heyward said. "But at times I find myself trying too hard to get there and come up too late."

Gosewisch twisted and jumped to avoid a tag on an off-line relay and "landed on my leg kind of funny."

"It probably looked like it was painful but once I got back inside and the doctor looked at it, he seems to think it's nothing major," Gosewisch said.

Kolten Wong hit his first career leadoff homer for St. Louis, which has won four straight. Mark Reynolds, the new first baseman replacing injured Matt Adams, had an RBI single.

Trumbo connected for the second time in the series for Arizona with a 425-foot drive to centre leading off the fourth against Lance Lynn. Tomas extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single.

Matt Holliday set a Cardinals franchise record by reaching safely in 43 straight games to start the season, passing Albert Pujols' 2008 standard. It's the longest run in the majors since Derek Jeter set the big-league record with 53 in a row in 1999.

Seth Maness (1-0) got the last two outs of the ninth for St. Louis.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Diamondbacks: 3B Jake Lamb (left foot stress reaction) played four innings and was 2 for 4 at extended spring training. He's expected to play DH Thursday and could begin a rehab soon. David Hernandez (elbow surgery) struck out two in a scoreless inning for Double-A Mobile.

Cardinals: OF Jon Jay played the second game of what's expected to be a brief rehab stint off a left wrist injury. The team expects to activate him off the DL on Friday.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks: On Friday, Rubby De La Rosa makes his first career appearance against the Brewers. Goldschmidt is a career .386 hitter against Milwaukee with five homers and 15 RBIs in 29 at-bats.

Cardinals: After a day off, John Lackey gets the call Friday to start a three-game series against the Dodgers. He's 5-3 with a 1.93 ERA against the Dodgers and beat them in the NL division series last fall.