PITTSBURGH -- Colin Moran has played in fewer than half of the Pirates’ games this season due to injuries, but he’s hoping to finish the season strong and healthy.

In Thursday’s series finale, Moran provided some pop to an offense that has direly needed hits -- big or small -- and he bucked some trends to do so. However, it wasn’t enough to stop the Cardinals from sweeping the Pirates at PNC Park, with the final loss coming in at 7-6.

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After the Cards struck for a run early against JT Brubaker, who allowed five runs in five innings, Moran sent a Statcast-projected 423-foot home run to right-center field off lefty Wade LeBlanc to put the Pirates ahead 3-1 -- the first lead they’ve had since the fourth inning of their 3-2 loss to the Reds on Sunday.

Then, with the Pirates trailing by two runs, Moran homered off lefty Andrew Miller to lead off the fourth inning. The dingers were his first two of the season against left-handed pitching, and it marked the second multihomer game of Moran’s career.

“I thought he had good aggressive swings throughout the entire game,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Obviously, the two homers, but even the rest of his at-bats, it’s probably as aggressive as we’ve seen him since two weeks into the season, which is a really good sign.”

It has been a long journey for Moran to get back to this kind of comfort at the plate. He fractured the pisiform bone on the outside of his left wrist when he was hit by a pitch on June 28, and even though it was a small fracture that did not require a procedure, Moran needed more than a month away from the playing field.

But once Moran got through a week’s worth of games with Triple-A Indianapolis without further issue, he knew he was good to go.

“It was just in a tricky spot in the wrist where it was just kind of taking a little bit more time to get comfortable swinging and doing some things,” Moran said. “I’m just happy to be back now.”

With John Nogowski struggling to produce like he did out of the gate with the Pirates, Moran is in line to get the bulk of the playing time to end the season, even if the club decides to bring up the newly acquired Michael Chavis from Triple-A. Shelton has already mentioned Nogowski as an option to move to the outfield in a pinch to give Moran playing time.

“I just want to go out there and play the next 50 or so games, play hard and help us win,” Moran said.

Despite the good signs for Moran and a few others, the Pirates are now in an eight-game losing streak that includes back-to-back sweeps to division opponents.

In a clubhouse restructured by trades at the Deadline, which took a few veterans out of the mix, the Pirates are staying positive. Brubaker said he looks forward to coming to the field every day to play catch with the pitchers and see what the new day brings, not worried about any past failures.

“The more we have fun, the more the game is going to become fun and the more winning is going to happen,” Brubaker said. “It’s kind of a chain reaction right there. So we definitely have the first part down 100 percent. This is a fun group of guys.”

But to win, the Pirates are going to need more than just one batter to get hot. They finally produced well on Thursday, when they outhit the Cardinals 10-9 and had some late scoring opportunities, including one capitalized on when Bryan Reynolds swatted a two-run home run in the ninth inning.

They think a game of production at the plate like they showed on Thursday could fuel them.

“We’re just trying to get the ball rolling and keep it going,” Moran said. “We have a lot of talented hitters on the team, so we’re trying to line up some good at-bats together and score some runs.”