The wild-card Pittsburgh Pirates beat top seed St. Louis 5-3 on Sunday to move within one victory of reaching the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

The Pirates, playing in the postseason for the first time in 21 years, rewarded their success-starved fans at rocking PNC Park by taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series.

"Unbelievable," Canadian-born catcher Russell Martin said of the constant roar from the crowd of more than 40,000 at the sold-out stadium.