PITTSBURGH — Paul Goldschmidt’s power streak helped lift the St. Louis Cardinals into a share of the NL Central lead for the first time since early May.

Goldschmidt homered in his career-high fourth straight game, lifting the Cardinals over the Pittsburgh 6-3 on Thursday for a four-game sweep of the Pirates.

St. Louis won the eighth time in nine games and at 55-47 tied the idle Chicago Cubs for first. St. Louis last held the lead before play on May 7.

Goldschmidt drove in nine runs and had four of the Cardinals’ 12 home runs during sweep.

“He’s an impressive guy,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “We’re seeing what he’s capable of consistently. We’re not surprised.”

With St. Louis ahead 2-1 in the fourth, Goldschmidt drove a changeup from Joe Musgrove (7-9) for his 22nd home run. He has one homer in each of his past five games against Pittsburgh.

“We’ve been finding some holes,” Goldschmidt said. “We’ve been hitting extra-base hits.”

Kolten Wong homered later in the fourth and Dexter Fowler hit a two-run drive for a 6-1 margin in the fifth as the Cardinals won for the 11th time in 14 games since the All-Star break, including their last five.

Pittsburgh was outscored 30-19 in the series and has lost 11 of 13.

“We haven’t played winning baseball,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “I know that’s an overstatement, but it’s a statement, and it’s true. We haven’t played winning baseball. We haven’t connected the dots.”

Miles Mikolas (7-10) gave up three runs and five hits in six innings.

“I felt good to have a couple games in a row getting into the sixth and close to the seventh,” Mikolas said. “Thought I had everything working today. Maybe not my best fastball, but I thought I had good control of the slider and the other off-speed stuff.”

Musgrove matched his season high by giving up six runs.