Facing their archrivals for the first time since this past July when they were 10 games out, surrendering to the standings, and dismantling their roster, the Cardinals were eager to show the Cubs a new look.

And, no, this wasn’t just about the City Connect uniforms.

Wearing red jerseys in a regular-season game for the first time in 140-plus years of major-league baseball in St. Louis, the Local Nine revisited some more recent history with the style of play that revived their season over the past two weeks. Off the bench and back with a bang into the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry, Matt Carpenter delivered a pinch-hit, game-tying single in the eighth inning and primed the bases for a game-winning gush of runs. Brendan Donovan’s two-run, two-out single was the clincher and Lars Nootbaar’s triple the essential exclamation point in a 7-6 victory Saturday night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals rallied twice to tie the game before taking their first lead of the game in the eighth inning — just in time for closer Ryan Helsley. The right-hander allowed two runs in the ninth inning and made the final pitch of the game with the potential tying run on third base. He got a groundout to secure his 16th save of the season.

The Cardinals, clawing out of last place, have won nine of their past 11.

Forget the river-inspired pinstripes or even a Nelly-inspired “The Lou” logo, the Cardinals haven’t looked this good, this snazzy in a while.

As the teams seesawed toward the eighth inning, one of the most compelling games of the year gave the Cardinals their best chance to claim their first lead against Cubs reliever Mark Leiter Jr. He allowed back-to-back singles to open the eighth, and the Cardinals seemed confident the game would flip. They did not go to a pinch-runner for the potential go-ahead run. Even after catcher Ivan Herrera turned to bunt and pulled back twice, he got a chance to take a swing to change the game. He took a pitch to strike out and Masyn Winn popped up to give Leiter an exit ramp from this traffic jam.

The Cardinals turned to Carpenter, who knows a swing or two about changing games in this long-running rivalry. He was about to enter his 180th game against the Cubs — a team against who he had 97 RBIs. Carpenter drilled a single, but only a deft slide by Alec Burleson made it an RBI. Burleson got his left hand to the plate just ahead of catcher Miguel Amaya’s mitt met Burleson. The Cubs challenged the safe call only to watch how safe Burleson was a few times on the replay.

Donovan followed with the game-winning two-out hit, and Nootbaar tripled into the gap. What seemed to be piling on proved essential when the Cubs rattled off four hits in the ninth.

Starter Miles Mikolas had one inning come apart on him for three runs but authored six innings for a quality start. The Cardinals’ best stretch of baseball in more than a year had a hiccup with one error that allowed the Cubs to take the lead late.

Ball gets loose, so does knotted score

The throw took first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s reach to the back side of the first base, and in his recovery to bring his glove back, the ball came loose.

The question for the Cardinals was how long he had control of it.

The answer would open the inning for the Cubs.

With one out in the seventh inning and a tie game to hold, the Cardinals turned to the right-handed half of their shutdown setup tandem. Andrew Kittredge got two groundballs from the first two batters he faced. One turned into an out. The other became an error. Goldschmidt had to lunge for the throw from second baseman Nolan Gorman as Michael Busch neared first base. The throw beat the Cubs first baseman easy, but in making the catch and recovery, the ball jostled out of Goldschmidt’s glove and to the ground.

First-base umpire Manny Gonzalez called Busch safe. The Cardinals challenged that call on the grounds that Goldschmidt had control and possession of the ball long enough to make the out at first in the same way a middle infielder does on a double play before losing a grip. Major League Baseball’s review officials in New York sided with Gonzalez and confirmed the call. Instead of an out, the Cardinals had a problem.

Instead of an out, the Cubs had an opening.

A walk from Kittredge nudged Busch into scoring position and a double from a teammate, former Cardinal Patrick Wisdom, slingshot him home to break the 3-3 tie.

Winn extends streak, ties game

Already the longest hitting streak of his young career, rookie Masyn Winn extended his to 14 consecutive games with a single in the fourth inning. That hit didn’t generate much for the Cardinals when Cubs starter Jameson Taillon got an inning-ending double play.

When Winn next came around to face Taillon, there was more than a streak at stake.

Gorman’s single and stolen base put a potential game-tying rally in motion for the Cardinals and brought the inning to Winn, the last batter Taillon was likely to face either way. Get him out and Taillon finished six with a lead. Allow him to reach base and the Cubs had a lefty ready in the bullpen to face left hand-hitting Michael Siani or a pinch-hitter. Taillon challenged Winn with a series of slicing pitches — a sweeper in the dirt, a cutter away, a cutter less away. When Taillon went back to the sweeping slider, Winn pounced.

He went down and pulled the pitch for an RBI double to score Gorman and level the game. At that point in his 14-game hitting streak, Winn has gone 19 for 51 (.373).

Cubs rally in 26 pitches, flat

It took Mikolas 26 pitches to get out of the inning that undid what he accomplished in his previous 25 pitches.

With help from a couple of double plays spun at second base by Winn, Mikolas faced the minimum through three innings. He got a double play started by second baseman Gorman, turned by shortstop Winn, and completed by first baseman Goldschmidt to end each of the first two innings. He took care of the third mostly on his own. Mikolas had eight outs on his first 22 pitches.

He struck out Miguel Amaya with the next three.

That expediency and efficiency kept the Cubs scoreless through the first three innings and ahead of when the Cardinals took the lead. That expediency and efficiency did not follow the Cardinals’ starter into the fourth inning.

The Cubs entered Saturday’s game with a .207 average in the previous 30 days, and only division rival Cincinnati had a lower average in that same span, at .206. Only two teams in the majors had scored fewer runs than the Cubs in the past month. They average 3.3 runs per game during those 30 days — and with a leadoff hit in the fourth inning and two-run gap to overcome they scored three runs on Mikolas.

Every single one of them with two outs.

Mike Tauchman, who rose from fourth outfielder to leadoff hitter with a strong start to this season, opened the inning with a single, and he stole second. It wasn’t until Christopher Morel drew a two-out walk that the inning came undone on Mikolas. Nico Hoerner followed with a two-run double, and he scored on a two-out single by Busch. In his first game at the ballpark that shares his name, Busch delivered the RBI that put the Cubs ahead.

Mikolas eventually got the groundball to get out of the inning and leave Busch stranded at Busch, but his pitch count more than doubled.

And the Cardinals had their first deficit to erase.

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